the daily snivel

One of my favourite shows on television is This is Wonderland, which airs on Tuesdays at 9:00 pm on CBC. It's about a harried team of legal aid lawyers working in the lower criminal courts at the Old City Hall courthouse in Toronto. Having spent a great deal of time in the criminal courts here in Ottawa during my two years at the Legal Clinic, I have to say the show is hilariously realistic. A lot of the research is done simply by going to the courts and watching what goes on. The slick, acerbic Crowns, the grumpy judges and justices of the peace, and the frazzled defence lawyers are all what you can expect to see. I love the look on the lawyers' faces as they attempt to grapple with the troubles of their clients, most of whom are variously bipolar, paranoid, pitiful, intoxicated, irrational, poor, indignant, vexatious, petty, and sometimes even innocent. Without being too glib or cynical, it really is a portrayal of what the practice is really like. Not really sexy, but fascinating and heartbreaking and rife with ethical problems and the many and sundry pitfalls of starting out in the criminal justice system. And absurdly, tear-jerkingly funny.

Meanwhile, I'm writing my Last Essay Ever(!) this week, on the topic of a right to legal aid in order to prevent wrongful convictions. I start the Bar Admissions Course on Monday, which is just a whole new drawn out rigamarole of exams and assignments to keep me from having too much fun, but on the bright side it's the last leg in my journey to my own little piece of the criminal practice, because after Bar ads end in August, I get to start articling at a criminal law firm in September and wrangling with the issues brought out by clients of my own (and the many many lawyers I'll be helping out).