8 hour trial

Ohmygoodness. What a day. I just got back into the office after an 8 hour trial. You know... I've never experienced fatigue like this; not even after a 5 mile run! Such amazingly fulfilling fatigue though. Soulquenching stuff. We won the case; I've been working on it for almost a year now. Well, since October 2005 anyway; today was the full and final hearing. My client is such a lovely guy; it's like the movie with Matt Damon in it...erm... Rainmaker, that's it. Poverty stricken, gentle, quiet, really frail guy, diagnosed with cancer, undergoing chemo; quashed by the bigwig commercial baddie who thinks he can get away with it. And so we work and work and do our best to make sure the baddie cant do what he's done to anyone else, and try to make sure the gentle frail guy is protected and given back the dignity thats been stripped off him by uncaring capitalists. Yes. Public defending is what I can see myself doing for life....

Apart from the fact that I am slightly woozy because all I've had since being in court at 9:30am is a cup of coffee (it's now 6pm), I am on a high. You shouldve seen my client's face when we won and this nightmare was declared officially over by the Judge. He looked at me when the verdict was being read out and said "I dont understand a word... what's he saying? What's that mean?" And I beamed and whispered back, "mate, you've won!" man.... that smile... it would've lit up a football stadium. God bless him. He deserves this, after enduring so much pain and misery. His genuine happiness makes all the late nights worth it. I soooo love this job.