Court Ethnography Essay

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For my court ethnography I observed plea, bail, and family court in the city of Milton. However, it was called the Ontario superior court of justice. When I first entered a court it looked exactly like what I had seen in movies. The court setup, the vernacular used, and the customs of the court employees were exactly like what mainstream media has displayed to the public over the years. Entering the court, symbols of justice were exhibited everywhere in the courtroom. In the courtroom all kinds of cases were occurring, and people from all types of backgrounds were involved. Observing the inner workings of our justice system gave me invaluable insight on how law and order is preserved in our society. Furthermore, I also got to witness the specific …show more content…

My observations were that both the prosecutor and defence had a certain sentence in mind, which they would present to the court, and the judge would deliberate over which lawyer he should listen to. However, I was surprised to see the amount of back and forth that went on between everyone. These events relate to the writings of Blumberg where he states, “However, lawyers… have close and continuing relations with the prosecuting office and the court itself through discreet relations” (Abraham, 1997: 20). During one case in plea court, one of the prosecutor stated that the defence and her had already agreed to a sentence. It seems that the backdoor negotiations that Abraham wrote about are true. The reason this is important is because it displays to the common folk that the legal system is not as cut and dry as it seems. It shows that a person’s fate may be determined based on the debating skills of a person’s lawyer, rather than our legal codes. Furthermore, using the term “game” to describe how a portion of our legal system is conducted would belie the beliefs of many on how justice is dealt in our country. When people think of lawyers and court they imagine people fighting for the rights of people, that the innocent are protected and the guilty are punished. The haggling nature of backdoor negotiation on what sort of sentence will be handed out sort of cheapen the image people have of

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