All rise. Court is now in session. Judge Shaina [phonetic] presiding. Please be seated and come to order.
Shaina: That's what happens every time you walk in?
Kobat: That's what happens every morning that I go to work. Next Tuesday at 9 oclock we'll have that matter heard.
Shaina: I'll be having a facial at that time.
Kobat: I don't find that that's good reasoning to postpone the trial.
Shaina: This is our Circuit Court Judge; Jeff Kobat [phonetic] presides. Let's approach the bench.
Kobat: Behind the bench is like any other workspace. It's, you got your chair, I got my
Shaina: Got some cabinets space back here.
Kobat: When, whenever they talk about throw the book at him, this, this is the ones they're talking about. These are the Florida statues that have all the laws.
Shaina: What is a judge?
Kobat: Well a judge is a person who has been either elected or appointed to resolve adjudicate, [phonetic] a dispute that is brought before him or her.
Shaina: Judges preside over a wide array of cases.
Kobat: Typically I break it up into five areas. They'll have, a judge will be in charge of a docket, a small family law, or all criminals, or all civil, or probate, or juvenile.
Shaina: A docket determines what Judge Kobat is up to each day.
Kobat: A docket is my, an agenda, of course my schedule. It' my, what I'm gonna do today. It's like a day timer; we call it a docket or a calendar.
Shaina: So what's on a judges to do list?
Kobat: If I'm resolving legal motions, motions to suppress, motions to dismiss, motion for bill of a ticket, and all sorts of legal things; quick little fast hearings. And then once I get that group of cases done in the morning session, then I'll pare it down to my trial. Okay, we're going to trial on, you know, State of Florida versus, you know, John Doe.
Shaina: Judges ensure trials and hearings are conducted fairly and keep order in the court.
Kobat: I want to make sure that the lawyers treat each other, and their clients, and each other's clients, and the witnesses with respect. Take the emotion out of the, out of the dispute, so that we can get to what the problem is and resolve the legal issues.
Shaina: Here's something you hopefully won't ever see, Judge Kobat gave us a behind the scenes look at how prisoners make their way to court.
Kobat: The controller opens up the doors; the sheriffs van with the prisoners comes in. The doors close. And then they open the, close those doors, and then they open these doors. So that, shut them, and then they go straight into me.
Shaina: Then it's just a secure elevator ride to the judge.
Kobat: And then this is
Shaina: That's
Kobat: The jail elevator.
Shaina: Can I go in?
Kobat: In you go. And then this is for Deputy security.
Shaina: Are you gonna let me out?
Kobat: Ah, um, maybe.
Shaina: Once all parties are in the courtroom, the judge oversees legal procedures.
Kobat: There's rules of evidence, rules of procedures that have to be followed that are well spelled out that I've got to follow. And I make sure that are followed.
Shaina: When judges aren't on the bench, they're in their chambers. That's where Judge Kobat does research and reviews legal documents. How many hours do you put in here a week?
Kobat: Well, the official court hours are 8:30 to 5:00.
Shaina: A judge's job might not end there.
Kobat: We try to follow the juries lead on what they want to do as far as how long they want to deliberate, and last week I had a jury on a Friday, say Judge, we want to keep working, because we don't want to come back next week. We want to keep working. And we didn't leave till midnight.
Shaina: In most states before you can be elected or appointed judge, you must be a lawyer.
Kobat: Fulfill high school, 4 years of college, 3 years of law school
Shaina: Pass the bar.
Kobat: Pass the bar.
Shaina: Then if you're an elected judge you can serve an unlimited number of terms.
Kobat: Every 6 years we're up for reelection. We have to retire when we're 70.
Shaina: If you want to serve on the bench, you're not alone. There's lots of competition for this prestigious position.
Kobat: It's fun, it's challenging, it's sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes it's stressful.
Shaina: But don't let stress scare you.
Kobat: And I really rarely get agitated or loose my temper. But if I start feeling that coming up, I quickly think to myself, okay, who's the luckiest guy in the courtroom? Who's the luckiest guy in the courtroom? Oh, it's me.
Shaina: On average, the luckiest guy in the courtroom earns close to six figures a year. Courtroom drama, the judges always look kind of mean.
Kobat: Yeah.
Shaina: Can you tell me, is that true?
Kobat: Ah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Ah, judges are just like the rest of, all of us, so from that is, they all have their own personalities.
Shaina: The verdict? You can be patient and relaxed, and be a great judge. Now all you need is a gavel? Or maybe not? So where's your gavel?
Kobat: Interesting thing. We judges, we have gavels, but we never use them. I don't know of any of my colleges that have ever banged a gavel or used it. Usually we can control what happens in the courtroom without the use of a gavel.
Shaina: Instead, many judges use their gavels for decoration. Judge Kobat uses his to hang pictures in his chambers.
Kobat: well Shaina, as a result of your hard work here today and your dedication to informing all of these wonderful people about the activities of what we judges do, we'd like to make you an honorary judge for the day.
Shaina: Yeah!
Kobat: And so, let me put your robe on.
Shaina: This is the moment I've been waiting for. All right guys, thanks for watching. And if you want to be a judge go to law school first. I'm Shaina for younivesity TV, let's get started.
Kobat: All rise
Shaina: Did you go to trial or did you plead guilty? I'm just reading from [inaudible]
Kobat: Awesome.
Shaina: It's nothing.
