I was trying not to bitch about this, but, clearly, I failed. It’s common knowledge that if a relief clerk takes your place in your courtroom, you’ll come back to things either not done, not done right, or things misplaced/changed. I got all 3 categories.

The trial we got yesterday has two probation violation cases trailing it. That means that the guy’s in trial on one case, and if he’s found guilty, he’s obviously violated the terms of his probation on his 2 other cases cuz one of the terms of probation is to not commit any crimes (duh). (Of course the defendant gets due process on the probation violation cases, i.e. a probation violation hearing.) Anyway, the relief clerk only did a minute order entry on the main case. I had to find out that there were 2 trailing probation violation cases for which nothing was done, and I really don’t want to do work for someone when I wasn’t even here for the hearing and have my name attached to a legal document, but hell, it’s not gonna take very long. So I had to email my supervisor to ask for her ID# to input into the system for her 2 orders, or at least her name, so that I could put it into the comment section. Of course he hasn’t responded. I hope he just tells her to do the two entries herself. As for our 7-defendant criminal case my department did in the morning before the trial, I’m scared to look in there in case she screwed stuff up, and the heavy file’s just sitting on top of the file cabinet, not even put back in a filing cabinet. Apparently some important things happened in that 7-defendant case, i.e. a lot of charges got dropped and 3 defendants were therefore released from the case, subject to refiling. That’s a lot of updating in the system.

And here’s the more petty bitching: my chair was lowered all the way down and stuck like that so that it took both me and my reporter to yank the thing back up; my favorite pen is missing. I’m not saying she stole it. Maybe she just didn’t put it back anywhere I could find it.

If I wanted the day off or I called in sick or am on vacation, that’s fine, I made the request and it’s a sacrifice I considered. But when I’m here for work and I get taken out of my courtroom to fill in for another courtroom and my own courtroom is in session, without any forewarning when they could’ve planned this better by arranging for someone else to fill in the other courtroom last week or at least by letting me know so that I could make some prep in my courtroom… argh!

OH MY GAWD! I just leaned back in my chair and the whole back just goes completely back! I don’t know what the hell adjustment I need to make so that I don’t flip out of it if I leaned back! Waaah!!