The Family Court Experience

One of my clients requested that I accompany her to the Family Court. She has applied for a PPO (Personal Protection Order) against her husband who often hit her. On the day of hearing both spouses have to turn up in court and she fears her husband might turn aggressive. I assured her he would not dare do that in court but she was quite insistent. Sigh, so I sought advisc from my boss half hoping that it is not the practice to accompany clients to court. "That is part of the work of a social worker", my boss assured me. So last week I stepped into the Family Court at Havelock Road.

My my was I impressed. "Wow this is like a hotel" I mumbled as I stepped in. The waiting area is quite well furnished with lots of sofas and generally is quite warm and cosy. There is also a play room for the kids. I suppose this is intended to provide the ambience for the last attempt in reconciliation.

The wait was horrendous. There were at least 10 names for the same time slot. We waited for more than 2 hours. When we got tired of talking I spent my time people watching. It is not surprising when each couples' names are called, a lady from one section of the room and a guy from another section of the room went forward, estranged so behave like strangers ma. But what is amazing is quite a few very genteel and refined looking ladies would go into the court room with "da er nong" looking (illegal money lender) ruffians. "Gosh what has gone wrong, why this woman end up with this man?" I thought to myself.

After 2 hours wait, we were ushered into the court room. There were about 4 to 5 rows of seats filled with people waiting for their case to be mentioned. There were 2 ladies sitting on my right whilst my client sat on my left. After some time my stomach started to growl in the quietness of the court room. The first lady on my right said to the lady beside her, "It is not me" and they looked at each other knowingly. To save my embarrassment I whispered to them "It's me, I think they should at least provide biscuits!" Following my remark the lady on my right took out a small tupperware with New Year Goodies and offered me. So, I helped myself to a small cupcake. Just as I gave it a bite, a policeman appeared at the aisle and signal to me that eating is not allowed. I signal to him my apology and hid my hand holding the cupcake beneath the seat. See I didn't want to leave the room because I wanted to hear the proceedings of this arrogant young man in the box giving excuses for not turning up for counselling and being absent for the previous summon. He was saying he mistook the date to be 18th Jan instead of 8 Jan and the lady judge told him she was giving him the benefit of the doubt, and then she demanded "Do I hear an apology?" to which the arrogant young man said tersely "I apologise for that".

At this point I quickly stuffed the remaining cupcake into my mouth hoping to be done with it. Quick as a ghost the policeman appeared again. He really must have been watching me. This time round he pointed to the door. Ah Well, he is right, this is no picnic ground.This is no movie theatre either. So I left the room to gobble down my cup cake. When I returned the arrogant young man was no more in the box.

My client's husband did not turn up and will be issued a warrant of arrest, which means another date of hearing will be set and this time round he better appear and give some excuses for not turning up. Gosh I hope my client will not ask me to accompany her again because I am not sure how to handle the situation if they start to quarrel after the hearing outside the court, sigh. Court room drama is only exciting if you are a spectator.