Friday 23 April 2010

Education these days

This is a picture of the entrance to the Santa Barbara Court House. I have no idea what it says above the door because I don't have an Oxbridge education. My best guess is "Discuss justice monthly" or "This site for justice if you have money".

It's a fascinating place though, Pam and I even watched a medical malpractice case for a while which I realised, after a few minutes, was about a young and athletic woman who allegedly suffered a screwed up surgery on her knee after a skiing accident. It was a little ironic because I could hardly walk at this stage due to, er, my knee. Actually, walking wasn't so bad but having to straighten it out every so often was. Sitting down listening to the testimony in a hushed court room with the resulting "crack" from my knee joint every time I moved was a little embarrassing.

I'd love to know how the court case went. I'd also like to thank the court sheriff who was very kind to us and explained the US legal system to me in a couple of minutes.

The halls of justice.

Another hall of justice. It looks quiet but there were cases going on. I used my knowledge garnered from Boston Legal to figure out what was going on and who was who although the judge was easy to spot.

2 comments:

John Powell said...

"Having been warned, study justice." http://www.inrebus.com/index.php?entry=entry071111-064525

I looked it up on the internet.

Then again it might mean, "Learn the justice of watchfulness," which doesn't even make sense, but is given as the "literal translation" of Dryden's poetic translation "learn righteousness." from here: http://www.karenblixen.com/question59.html

It's Virgil. From the Aeneid which educated people used to know. But now we have the internet.

Tom said...

John - a little surprised you had to look it up - I thought perhaps this was something you'd find at every court house in the US and drummed into every lawyer! ;)

I'll do a little research when I get the time, but the words so far do seem to be a bit odd which prompted my post. Thanks for the pointers!

Tom