Legal Reporting

We will meet at 9 AM sharp at Eastern Magistrates Court, 29 Tai On Street, Sai Wan Ho. There is a reception counter on the ground floor just inside the doors. We will meet a clerk named Edith, who will take us to Court 1, on the 6th floor. Principal Magistrate Gary Tallentire will preside and will be expecting us. So, check on the court website tonight for details of some of the cases we will hear.

http://www.judiciary.gov.hk/en/crt_lists/daily_caulist.htm

Also, at some point we will also go check the charge sheets at the office on the 7th floor.

Bring a pad and pen and be prepared for quick-fire, sometimes rather chaotic, proceedings.  Hearings are likely to be brief.   If you hear a case number called out, it is worth jotting it down as this sometimes helps link what we hear to anything which may be on the charge sheet.

We have switched to Eliot Hall 101.

Some of you have started attending the Coroner’s inquest today. I’ve set up a password-protected blog on the left to include your brief account of today’s proceedings.
Please be prepared to write something in a style of a news story. The only difference is that you can include additional observations and information that normally would not go into a news story, including what will happen in future days. Assign different parts of the hearing for each member of your reporting team. so for example, you may want to each take a different witness if there are several witnesses that day. Or one person does a summary of that session while the others do sidebars focusing on a key piece of testimony. Someone can even do a news feature. But everyone should write something.

Today’s expected witnesses will be from the Hospital where the shot security guard was declared dead, a pathologist, a chemist and a forensic officer who lifted a shoeprint from the scene.

Also, a student notified me that it’s difficult to hear in the Digital Media Lab for lectures so I am setting up alternative arrangements for those class days we’re not writing or otherwise need the computer. Will send out a notice.

Have fun!