Law and Order

Guess what TV show I was wishing that I had watched a bit more of yesterday. Yep, Law and Order, though not because it's riveting drama (which, for me, it isn't). However, some currency with the most commonplace legal terms would have come in handy, because I was asked to interpret between a tourist who had been arrested and his French lawyer (provided by the state as part of his rights as a prisoner).

He wasn't in any serious trouble, the charge was something like being drunk in public, though he exacerbated matters by breaking out of the prison that night. I think the police appreciated that he came back promptly the next morning of his own will (dressed to impress in a suit, rather than his tattered going out/getting drunk/being arrested/breaking out clothes).

Anyway, although it was a piffling little matter, the police still had to go through all the paperwork and follow all the rules (France=bureacracy), one of which was to get a lawyer down to explain the whole procedure to him and inform him of his rights under the law. Which would have worked a treat if the tourist spoke French or the lawyer spoke English. Seeing as neither was the case, I was called in (the mother of the family I work was handling the case).

Really, it's been so long since I've a)watched Law and Order or b)been involved in legal proceedings, that it took me a good 5 minutes to remember the very high up lawyer who decides whether or not pursue legal proceedings against someone or what it's called when the police keep a prisoner under watch!! But once I got into the swing of things, it was really interesting to be the go between, and also, yay me for Frenchiness!!