This is 60 Centre Street (or NY Supreme Court) where I intern.. I feel so official with Court ID getting to walk up the steps and into the Courthouse.
Every Wednesday I go to the NY Supreme Court to intern for Justice Barbara Jaffe. For the first hour of my internship, I get to sit on P.C.s (preliminary conferences). This is the normally the first hearing for personal injury case and is when the lawyers for both the plaintiff and defendant come to the court and results in a Court order setting out the information, documents, and authorizations. It also results in a set date for physical examinations.
Normally each case flies by pretty quickly but the exception is always the pro se cases. This is when there is one party (normally the plaintiff) who is self-represented. All the Court Attorney’s always complained about the pro se cases because they always take so long. When I walk into the court to hear the P.Cs I can immediately recognize when a party is pro se. They ask a lot questions, need a lot of guidance and most all are a pain in the butt for everyone involved. One pro se P.C. I witnessed took over 20 minutes whereas the regular P.C. takes approximately 2-3 minutes.
By witnessing the pro-se P.C’s I truly got to see the power of the law and the huge advantage one gains by having an attorney. Yet after volunteering at the Tuesday Night Clinic and seeing the line out of the door of Friends waiting to get free legal help for their pro se cases, I could not help but think about how unfair the immigration legal system is. I see how hard it is for the pro se cases when the individual speaks English and understands, to an extent, American culture and the American legal system. But with the Friends they are unfamiliar with both.
I think back to the accompaniments I did with New Sanctuary Coalition at the beginning of this year. The pro se cases always went last which meant we could be waiting at immigration court for multiple hours. There are a multitude of disadvantages to representing one’s self. The pro se clients that come before Justice Barbara Jaffe have a choice. They choose to be pro se. The Friends at New Sanctuary do not get to choose.
How can the Friend’s be expected to represent themselves when they do not know the language. The culture. The legal system. When they have a translator over the phone because they do not understand what is going on. The more I learn about the immigration system in this country, the angrier I get. It makes me positive that I want to make a difference, that I want to use my privilege as an American to help uplift those outside the border of the United States of America.