Because we're off for Labor Day, our clinical group has to go to the Cook County Juvenile Center to observe court cases to make up the hours.

The courtroom we chose was involved primarily in cases of finalizing adoptions for wards of the state, and closing files as they became adults. The judge was a very nice woman, and expressed sincere compassion for the people involved in each case, as did most of the social workers and public guardians. The weird part about the whole thing was that only one of the cases had the actual parties present; all of the others were social workers and case managers giving testimony on behalf of their clients. I'm not sure if I expected heated custody battles and parents being ripped away from their crying children, but what was initially semi-interesting quickly became eye-stabbingly boring.