Working in divorce court

By Fannie Smith
Posted 11/13/02

In Default Divorce Court, I found myself in the jury box, seated among several - mostly women - court reporters, all pen writers. When a case was called, the attorney came forward with his client and pointed his finger or signaled one of the court reporters to take the proceedings. I had a disadvantage in this court. Pen writers had only a pad and pencil. I had a machine to set up. After the first time, I had my machine near the witness stand, ready for the take when called upon. For the appearance time, my interpreted notes prepared into a document, the signature of the complainer getting the divorce, and filing the documents in court as the decree, gave the court reporter $15. This was good money if a court reporter had three or more of default proceedings in a morning.

Contested Divorce Court On other occasions, I was called to this court. I first believed the judge was inexperienced, maybe sly as a fox. Divorces were not accepted much, nor easy to get, those days, especially if contested. I later assumed this was the usual and the divorcees were purposely inconvenienced in this court. The judge - maybe the lawyers, too - hoped these litigants would reconcile if given time.

The judge called the first case on the calendar. One of the attorneys told the judge, "I have a very serious wife abuse case with a drinking husband."

The judge's response was, "I don't want to hear it. Continued to a new date for re-scheduling."

Following the first case, the second case's lawyer said, "This is a flagrant case of adultery, Your Honor." The judge's response again was to continue the matter to the next date for scheduling. After a few more of these so-called serious divorce cases, the attorneys' role in the cases that followed was re-defined.

Lawyers and litigants were ready to wait for the new trial date to try the case. Likely, the lawyer and his clients had been in this court before and the judge listened to more statements by the lawyers. He continued the matter again or heard the next case. At this point the attorneys no longer tried to impress this judge, but tried the contested divorce.

Before long, a young couple appeared, this day, with their attorneys. The wife testified. Then the defendant-husband took the witness stand.

He was tearfully saying something like: "We are living with my wife's parents, she earns five dollars a week more than I do and is a year older than I. Our marriage hasn't had a chance. I don't want the divorce," and more. This young man was pleading and crying.

His attorney must have been watching me, and said to me, "You're not writing this down. The most important testimony has been missed. Your Honor, this is serious." I looked at my hands. They were nowhere near the stenotype keyboard. I had gotten totally absorbed in the witness's testimony, and now was horrified,

embarrassed and scared. But it happened.

The judge took a few seconds, told me to read the last I had written on my machine. I did. He then told the attorney to repeat his questions and the witness to answer the questions that were missed. Of course, they were not much like the first time - most of the emotion was missing. To end the matter, the judge called his bailiff forward, with the attorneys and their litigants, and told the bailiff to find an apartment for this couple. The judge ordered these two to live together in this apartment for a month and report to his court on a date the clerk would give them.

I will never know if my error helped or hurt the case, or what happened to this marriage because I wasn't in that courtroom when the case came back for a decision. Of course, failing to use the stenotype when expected never happened to me again. Experienced reporters' minds can drift away from the trial and the subconscious mind will take perfect notes. Only when something unusual happens or there is an objection by the other attorney, will the reporter mentally be called back to the trial at hand. My short experience lacked this art. Like judges who appear sleeping, not listening, really are well aware of what's going on. Always, they seem to "wake up" when necessary.

I was Notified by the "Y" to move. The next summer came and I was thinking about court reporting in Chicago, the almost hostile attitude of some reporters, the politics of the city, and Mr. Richards, my boss died unexpectantly. The office was functioning, operated by one of the court reporters. She called herself Mr. Richardsí assistant. There was little changed in the office before I left. What about the contracts that had to be renewed? Who would hire me? All these things came together for me, when I was told to move from the "Y" because I was earning too much money.

Dwelling on my situation, I decided to go to Minneapolis when I believed the Scandinavians and Germans living there would be reasonable and honorable people. The court system had permanent judges and court reporters had security. I'd be closer to home. This way, I talked myself into going. I packed my things, took a taxi loaded down with all my stuff and went to the train depot. There I got a one-way ticket and paid whatever was necessary for me and my baggage to be moved to Minneapolis.