Can you hear in court?

Here's a question for you.

Do you think you should be able to hear what is said in a courtroom?

American courtrooms are open to the public. We have wonderful freedoms, hard fought for, in this country. Any day that you'd like to visit an American courtroom, you can just trot over there, enter the courthouse (so far you don't have to take off your shoes (or clothing) to be screened for weapons, etc.) and go sit in the courtroom.

Once you are there, do you have the right to hear what is being said?

Go visit some courtrooms at the McHenry County Government Center. Even when the conversations between lawyers and litigants die down, the crying or disruptive children are quieted, and the clanking doors are closed, you may experience what I do on almost every trip to the courthouse.

Judges call the cases in loud voices. They want you to hear your name, if you are in the courtroom. But after that?

When the lawyers and clients approach the bench, if you are lucky, you'll catch a few words here and there, because voices drop almost to the whisper level. Lips are moving, so you know something is being said. Papers are handed back and forth. But in most cases it is virtually impossible to hear what is being said.

Occasionally, an attorney will speak up. A couple of years ago a woman attorney from Rockford was extremely well-prepared and also spoke clearly and loudly (not too loudly) to the judge. Yesterday John Kelly, who represented the sheriff in a case before Judge Meyer, spoke up. If the sheriff is hard of hearing, Kelly made sure he'd hear.

In another case before Judge Meyer, he had to lean forward toward the attorneys to hear them. At one point, he even had to ask an attorney to repeat what he had just said, because the judge, who was only about 36 inches from the attorney's mouth, couldn't hear him!

The solution is simple and without cost. All the attorneys and judges have to do is speak in conversational tone, not in hushed tones. If others and I then can't hear, we'll go shopping for hearing aids.