Story set in a court

[The waveguide]

Hey,

I am trying to write a short story. It should partly take place in a court with a judge. However, I found out that I have no idea what kind of language they are using there! Whatever I write sounds unrealistic because I do not use the right terminology. May be somebody can help me to find a typical process description? May be there exists some process describtion somewhere in a fiction-literature? It would be the best for me to use as a template!



Thanx a lot!

 

[mehastings]

What about John Grisham? He writes a lot of those court room dramas. I've never read any of them, but I assume they would have a lot of that kind of language in them.

 

[Doug Johnson]

It would be the best for me to use as a template!

If you do that, it'll probably sound like you used a template.

I'd recommend creating characters and keep getting to know them better until they start speaking for themselves.

 

[GreenKnight]

Excuse me for stating the obvious but...

Go to a court and sit in the gallery, preferably for an entire case (choose a simple one though!). Assume you can do that in the place where you live.

I did Jury Service recently and it was fascinating; a shame I have no plans to write any legal thrillers myself. It is ready-made drama, playing out in real time in front of you. And it's free to watch!

 

[The waveguide]

Excuse me for stating the obvious but...

Go to a court and sit in the gallery, preferably for an entire case (choose a simple one though!). Assume you can do that in the place where you live.

I did Jury Service recently and it was fascinating; a shame I have no plans to write any legal thrillers myself. It is ready-made drama, playing out in real time in front of you. And it's free to watch!

Well, thanx, but i was already in a court even as a participant. Some jerk changed his lane out of a sudden and hit our car. Well, the whole thing was quite different from the impressive courts you see in movies or read in books. We were around 40 people in one room, each came because of his own case. So while waiting for our turn, we listened to other cases (that was fun! you can't imagine what brings people to a court - many small stupid quarrels like in a kindergarden !). The judge was cool, she made ironic remarks (probably she was already fed up with such people's stupidity). Each case took her around 15 minutes. There were (in most cases) even no lawyers!

I want to have a jury in my story (which you probably have only in US, we do not have any jury here so I do not have even a chance to go to such a court as you have proposed)

Thus I need something to read. To learn how such process goes on. What follows what, what standard sentences are used, and so on. I said that I need a "template" because I do believe that each process IS a template. They must proceed in a similar way one to another. They must have rules for this (for example, they probably use the same sentences for calling witnesses, or for demanding a silence in a hall, or for saying the final decision.) It was not like that in my court case, because it was a court for minor things (fortunately for me!). I need a proper american-style court description