Edward W. Brooks CourthouseBen Gilbert
The day that the class went to
visit the Edward W. Brooks Courthouse is one that intrigued me and gave me an understanding
as to what happens on a busy day for the courthouse. The courthouse consists of
six floors, all of which serve specific operations that attend to the different
trials courts in Massachusetts as well as Boston’s Municipal Courts. Visualizing
the different courts working within one building can be mystifying and fascinating
at the same time.
Having so many people coming into the courthouse including lawyers, staffers, security, and also the defendants and their families if they were to come, can be overwhelming and for them all to find their way to the floor that would inevitably deal with the hearing they came for.
Having so many people coming into the courthouse including lawyers, staffers, security, and also the defendants and their families if they were to come, can be overwhelming and for them all to find their way to the floor that would inevitably deal with the hearing they came for.
Even though there is such a wide
range of people heading into the courthouse that day, they were always trying
to find out where they needed to be. The building provides benches along the
corridors, allowing the people to sit down and wait for their case to be
called. During eviction day, the housing court handles a vast variety of cases.
We had visited on this day of the week to further understand this process. During
this day, hundreds of cases are to be heard and they all vary in length of time,
due to many of the defendants representing themselves, the length of the case
varies because the defendant may be rambling on with details of a situation
that may or may not be important to the case at all. This is something the
judge is aware of and works patiently and politely to help them continue onward
with their case. This is something that I had found really interesting, the
point in which the court staff works slightly different because most of the
people for these cases are representing themselves.
Another thing that I found unusual was
the idea of the lawyer for a day and the location that it was placed. Currently,
it is placed right outside of the housing court, set up among fold out tables
that are staffed with volunteer lawyers from around the area. The concerning
set up for this service is the fact that it has the tenant and landlord tables
are set up right next to one another, leaving the two to not have any privacy
with one of the lawyers. This is something I feel could help the tenants that
are there representing themselves, in turn it may be something that could give
the tenant more confidence with their hearing. The trip to the courthouse was eye
opening for me in many different ways, leaving me with a better understanding
of the housing courts process and how they handle the hearings at this point in
time.