My Experience As An Intern At The Florida Community

As an intern at The Duval County Courthouse, I’ve learned so much about the legal profession. Initially when I started this internship, I did not know what to expect. I had a friend who completed the internship before me, and she spoke very highly of her supervisor and her overall experience there. On my first day at the courthouse, I was very nervous and instantly became intimidated by the extensive collection of books. For instance, I came across multiple books from The Florida Supreme Court that were written in 1846. My supervisor assured me that I would be fine but, there would be a lot to learn. As an intern my responsibility was to arrive at 8 am and set up the library for the day. That included turning on the computers for the patrons …show more content…
I sat in on felony and magistrate hearings as well as criminal and civil trials. One felony hearing involved a young man who was facing twenty-five years in prison. When he was seventeen years old he was placed on probation for a prior conviction. While on probation he was, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana which caused him to shoot his fourteen-year-old friend in the abdomen. The defendant was now on trial at eighteen years old for being in possession of a firearm, and manslaughter with a deadly weapon. The State of Florida found him guilty on those charges and offered him a plea deal with a sentence of 10 years. He accepted. One magistrate hearing involved a couple that lived-in Iowa but lived in Jacksonville for a couple of months. The father moved to Iowa and was ordered to pay $509.00 a month in child support by a Florida judge. The mother sent the child to Iowa to visit his father for one week, but he never returned to Florida (causing the mother to move to Iowa months later). While the child was in the father’s custody, he continued to pay child support to the mother. During the hearing (telephone conference) the father wanted to ensure that his ex-wife returned the money he paid in child support to a depository account. The attorney representing the father pointed out that she was behind on her monthly payments and the money was not …show more content…
Forbes, J.D. Assistant Director of Research Services because she is very intelligent, punctual and caring. She was a former U.S. Senator and practicing attorney. She has three sons and worked on Capitol Hill during the day and went to law school by night. She has worked in the Duval County Courthouse since 1976 and has seen the growth of her interns. I appreciate the fact that she presents opportunities for me to educate myself about my future endeavors. For instance, introducing me to attorneys having me read law reviews from schools, sitting in on hearings or even researching cases via WestlawNext, or LexisNexis. She constantly encourages me to challenge myself and study hard for law school. In addition to that, if there are any job openings she informs me on who I need to contact if interested. I admire my supervisor because she helps me to be a better me. Ms. Carol has extensive knowledge in probate law, which is the process of providing a will that is valid and therefore administering the estate of a dead person per the terms of the will. It is a judicial act or determination of a court having competent jurisdiction establishing the validity of the will prior to my internship I had no idea what probate law was and why it was so important. Many patrons that we serviced believed that they were entitled to an estate of a deceased person. In most cases the deceased relative did not have a will distributing their possessions to their family.