Practice Court Bloopers

So we thought a Practice Court subject as part of our curriculum is just what we need to prepare us for our own practice (hopefully as soon as we become lawyers) someday. So we thought. Sarcasm aside, we ought to think so.

After going through the summer-long stint of court visits, we sure had quite enough real-life court action experience. And then again we thought that should make wonders for us and allow us to breeze through our regular Practice court classes. Until it was time for us to have a role-play portraying an actual court session. Not like we were not aware ages ago that we will be tasked to do just. Much as it did not come to a surprise to us, our trademark carefree attitudes and bloating confidences didn’t come handy at all.

What was expected to be a very formal, serious and stiff showcase of a court session, in only a matter of seconds from the start of the action, turned out to be a really funny and spontaneous comedic act.

And so did the very lucky first group made its way to entertain us. And indeed entertain the entire pack of us inside our neatly-staged moot court. Nothing really does compare to raw and practical humor.

There went the group, looking a bit tense but seemingly in control. The Clerk of Court stood up, acknowledged the entry of the judge while making the necessary remarks for opening the session. And then our professor went ‘No! No! No!’. Each of them, clueless of what went wrong, feverishly eyed each other for possible mistakes. And bang! bang! The gavel went on and off and on. Was it the number of times the gavel was struck? And that dear classmate who played the judge while trying to figure how many times to strike the gavel gave all of us a very cute puzzled innocent laugh-mode look.

My knees were literally shaking not from the freezing temperature of the room but because I could really no longer brace myself for that moment’s moment.

This or that definitely is going down history’s lane as one if not one of the fondest comedic act I’ve ever experienced inside a class room. The likes of me could easily be tickled by teachers and professors’ funny stories or crazy antics but that court session role-play was topping the list. And that is without a doubt.

I’m just glad it wasn’t yet our turn to humiliate ourselves but who cares really, when we all know we surely all will take our spots then. I’ll just have my fingers crossed for a fun one or a funnier one.

The Faces of a Law Professor

Without a doubt, the best and the worst images of teachers you’ll ever find are the ones in law school. They may be the best because they are either downright smart asses by the look or simply oozing with sheer intellectual grace. Yet they may be the worst because they have in them innately the propensity to bust your ego or ruin your much-cultured self-esteem.

For one, they sure know how to overwhelm you with their wits. Many times, in those nerve-wrecking moments of intimate class discussions, I can’t help but be mesmerized by their seemingly flawless tongue. The words come out of their system swiftly like how the laws by themselves are neatly embedded in the codes. Yes, there are professors who, through years of practicing the law profession, have nonetheless become indubitable masters. Learning law with them is indeed a treat. Thus, making the embarrassing bouts during class recitations all worth-it.


While some do know how to charm you in learning law, others can inevitably create your worst nightmares ever. Yes, there are those teachers who could care less about sympathy and kindness. In fact, majority or most of the professors in law school are of the kind. The so-called ‘terror’ does have its roots. The moments you’ll have inside a classroom with a terror teacher would need no recounting I should say. Then you’d keep wishing the one hour or two hour period would magically transpire in just a matter of seconds. But learning the law with these professors are nonetheless more than a treat. You will definitely have a blast.


Apart from the traditional style of teaching, some professors do know how to create a little drama in there. They can be great actors, really. While the sternness and madness shows in just a squint of an eye or a wrinkle in the forehead for many, there are those who have the knack in employing reverse psychology. That is, they would threaten you not with their cruelty and harshness but would rather twist your mind with their silly antics and funny tricks.

The tremble and tone of their voices do speak a mile also. A yelling professor will surely break not just your eardrums but your frail heart as well. That is why they say law school is not for the soft-hearted freaks. But I look up to those soft-spoken ones who even in the timidity of their voices still make out the most interesting and enriching lectures inside the classroom.


The eloquence does dazzle the eager-learners. The credibility that exudes in them does spell utter respect and admiration, nowithstanding their being justices, judges, and lawyers. And at the semester’s end, I could only listen in awe and silently applaud in my seat.

A Peek Inside a Philippine courtroom

We had to sport that dignifying stance of a law student. Our decency and courtesy have doubled or tripled its form and showmanship. Kidding aside, we only have to bring ourselves in there, follow certain courtroom standard policies, and a little dress code too. So long as we don’t make too much noise, we are off the handcuffs and the scorn looks of the detained prisoners, as well as the prying eyes of the police officers and the terror nudge of our professor-judges.

This summer, we were set to accomplish 60 hours of court observation. I wasn’t quite sure then if the idea of it sounded like a treat but we were practically without a choice. That task technically is part of the requirements of the Practice Court subject in our fourth year. Yes, we were obliged to observe various courtrooms in Regional Trial Courts and Municipal Trial Courts. The task sure did gave us quite an idea how a typical courtroom in the Philippines is like, and how a typical day transpires inside the court.

A typical courtroom is indeed like a sala, that Spanish word for living room. No wonder it is referred to as the judge’s sala. Some of which we’ve visited are neatly clad and organized from the gavel’s spot to the end pew. Some have lockers where files are well-kept, while there were some who you could mistake for an archive section in a very old museum or library. There was one in particular we’d fondly call a kindergarten or prep classroom, with a pink bamboo bench in front, the row just next to where the lawyers are, and some cute decorations and posters all over. Another court had a collection or motorcycles in it, we would jestingly guess if those were for attached properties or just a hobby of the police officers. And that microwave near the judge’s desk, we couldn’t figure what really was that for. Yes, we were never really that observant. Whatever the courtroom looks like, we’d say it does speak much about the judge’s personality.

Furtively, we dare anticipate no less but to get to witness hard-core courtroom drama. Ergo, the ones we’ve witnessed were not made for Hollywood films. Not that we were desperate to witness one nor disappointed though because there where days during that 3-week stint which were quite eventful and exciting enough. I wouldn’t forget the day I sat beside an accused in a murder case. Later did I figure that the young man, looking like in his early twenties, beside me in that packed pew who I was stroking arms with, was the accused himself. I was too stupid then, but maybe just unmindful as what is characteristic of me, to notice the handcuffs on him and that yellow-coded shirt of a detained prisoner. While the medico-legal expert witness was testifying about how the victim could have been possibly strangled, I could care less making faces and whispering remarks on my classmate seated at my back. Only when she gave me that glaring warning look did I realize that the edgy young man beside me was the accused in that case. And so from then on, I had to learn to tame myself. I wouldn’t forget the stare he gave me at one point. In those uneventful sessions, we would often find ourselves giggling over some little or major bloopers --- from the judge’s scary demeanors, the prosecutors’ and lawyers’ weird antics, to the various faces and emotions of every witness who boldly takes the winess stand.

As was our objective, we had a take on the different courtroom processes: arraignment, pre-trial, trial where there is presentation of evidence or witness, promulgation of judgment, hearing on motions, amongst many. The new process, called a Judicial Dispute Resolution, which entails a practical way of resolving cases through mediation and compromise, is now being highly-encouraged and practiced by the courts. There were times as well when some of our professor-judges would take us to their chambers after the session to enlighten us on some matters.

The court observation activity didn’t literally give us a blast but it sure was a worthy venture for lawyer wannabe’s like us. We’d quite miss those friendly court personnel who kindly accommodated us during those visits, and who never tired in sparing for us those court calendars before we could think of taking them off the bulletin boards . Thus, the 60-hour task in a span of three weeks was a mission accomplished.

Getting by law school in the Philippines

After quite a journey in the academe with graces galore and a distressing job-hopping adventure in the corporate world, I entered law school with half-baked idealism and some neat doses of practicality, not to further mention the innate cynicism running in my veins. Like all lawyer wannabe’s, I took the simple philosophy that I’m entering law school with nothing to lose and everything to gain. After about three years in law school, much has changed, not in my lifestyle but in my views about many things and life in general. My half-baked idealism has receded to rawness. My twangs of practicality have found solace in sheer cynicism.

While it is mainly really an academic playground in there, the tests are far tormenting in the spirits than they are in the brains. It really is a strife. More than the academic test of pen and paper, it is one of plain wits, of patience and endurance. It is a test of character. The bouts of insanity should be normal though. When you’ve loads and loads of pages to chase, you’d nonchalantly mistake blue from green. When you’ve grueling sessions to partake in, you’d easily find refuge in the silliest and corniest jokes on earth.
The grueling exams which are essay-types are downright stressful to begin with. The utter subjectivity does take its toll too. Countless times you’d be left in awe receiving your exam booklets. Just when you are all confident about your answers, sometimes they are never good enough for your professors or the examiners. Then I started wishing for Multiple Choice exams then. But that sure would make the exams double, triple harder than they already are.

The daily torture of recitations are sure main events. The jitters you get are just like the ones you get before a Pacman fight, or even worse. I would have my way of recounting the nerve-wracking experiences but I would rather dwell on the hundreds and thousands of bloopers and comedic acts me and my batchmates have unmindly shared. The silly answers you spill out because of helplessness and dire humiliation, nothing would really compare with those. The pressures of having an honorable judge or a respectable lawyer throwing seemingly endless questions on your frail body, is really no joke at all. So thus they say, law school has no room for the soft-hearted.

The culture has quite some share of the system too. I’ve come around some fellows or transferees who recounted how they thought they have been unjustly kicked out of their former schools. They talk about teachers hating them for reasons in the wrong side of the spectrum or what they’d fondly refer to as politically-motivated ones. So if your father, mother, brother, sister, aunt or uncle, or any close relative is in bad blood with say your teacher, you’ d probably know just what to expect. You might just want to anticipate quite a reception for that or the teacher’s pet surely will steal off the spotlight from you. Yes, law school is not spared from the shunning favoritism syndrome. I’ve seen professors being outrightly nice and pleasant to some students for reasons you’d not bother ask about.

There are also organizations, fraternities and sororities who’d welcome you with open arms and imbibe you with some neat lofty ideals. They sometimes are a huge help socially especially when you’re a newbie around. They can be your sources of notes and materials too. But whether they can be a lot of help, that really depends on you and how you can take advantage of whatever resources they can impart.

Barely graduating from this field, I have yet to learn more as to how unpredictable law school is. And while I’m left desperately trying to spare my common sense and conscience from this tormenting environment, I should indeed keep crossing my fingers for answers and all the more clamor for justice.

The thing is, when you have the right attitude and the right amount of discipline in your system, great are the chances you’d breeze through law school. Then again, there’s too many factors and one of them is chance.

popping out..

after roughly nine months and a week, the kiddo is finally out..the family’s first newborn is a bouncing baby girl..hardly no doubt she is my brother’s gracious daughter with her huge nose and crinkling forehead features (if emphasis be need put..:>)..

what a delight she is to everyone..being the first grandchild, she does get all the unwanting attention..

and while i’ve been in jest plotting out her exile to planet Pluto via TNT rocketing its way out, i’m all tamed at one glance at her..just mesmerized..amazed at the sight of such a beautiful tiny creature..

welcome aboard mary cassidy!..

pals worth-reminiscing..

true enough, there’s people you’d meet who you thought the least would become your friends but surprisingly..in very uncompromising ways, they become what you least expect them to be..

not my habit to drop names so i’ll just rhetorically label them..

there was this silly carefree peyups blockmate of mine (didn’t i just say i wouldn’t drop names..right) he always carries with him his silly and ridiculous antics..the kind of dude who’d find such pure delight in annoying and vexing people around him..if you’re a newbie in the envi or a first-timer then, you’d naturally be pissed..but for strange reasons though, his egoistic tricks wouldn’t get into my frail veins..despite how hard he laughs out his face over my sometimes weird demeanor or my jurassic ways, i just have a way of blocking him off..at one point, he confesses how he enjoys vexing me because it doesn’t seem to bother me at all..and i could only look back at him with my own mischievous grimace..and i guess he knows we understood each other then, even if rarely do we sit back and talk like normal good friends do..

and that mean girl..(right, pardon the adjective but nothing any more befitting eheh..a blockmate too way back peyups days..)..the kind you’d treasure not for many reasons but for little but really good and classy ones..the kind that you’d carry with you and reckon with yearning..she hated me so much for reasons i woudn’t know then..she wasn’t even candid about how she felt towards me but unforgivingly upfront about it..it was more than enough when she even managed to pinpoint me in an open forum with a group that amongst us, it was i she doesn’t like..i really wouldn’t know what exactly she was meaning then but it did bother me for a while..not because i wasn’t aware that i was nowhere near likeable..i’ve learned my lesson early on that you never can please everybody ergo, i really didn’t need her to teach me that lesson..but something in her indifference towards me made me wonder enough..not that it was totally getting into my nerves..but even so, i mustered enough courage to brush her aside..just blocked her off my way silently til then..never bothered to change an inch of me just because so (not everyone sees it but i have this silent meanness in me too..)..and so i kept my distance..two years after sharing the same classroom..who would have thought, that mean girl became one of my trusted pals (the coolest on a lighter note i should say)..the pivotal moment happened when our block was having a practice for a dance number..we both got tired at the same time so we sat at the sides..just the two of us..couldn’t figure how awkward that moment was but it sure did pave the way to a meaningful friendship..one of the best conversations really..then on, we didn’t’ become inseparable (we still went with different sets of friends..) but time to time, in between those frantic college stretch and strife, we’d always find a way to sit back and talk like we were the bestest of friends..sure, time does have its way of fixing things up..

the reminiscing has turn melancholic..good ole buddies..cutting out..:>

in the middle of somewhere..

just kicking off the summer shoes..

i’m nowhere in a fancy beach resort..nor in an exotic island..(not that i’m not wishing for it though..daydreaming ain’t gonna take you anywhere anyhow..) just in the middle of somewhere..

that somewhere is just somewhere away from home..and that’s quite a treat for itself..though nothing extraordinary, just away form the usual..

then again, you start reckoning..those things you thought you can’t live without, you actually can..

that somewhere is in a tiny abode in this small town..life down here is literally quiet, peaceful and slow.. good slow, that is..

and while everyone on earth is heating up..it’s nice to be out here, just dilly-dallying..loitering..taking those slow walks..in the middle of somewhere..