Bexar County Courthouse
(Bexar = pronounced "Bear"）
February 13, 2024, the Chinese lawyers departed from St. Mary's Law School to visit the Bill County District Court.
Bill County District Court is the largest and oldest continuously operating trial court in Texas. It was designed by James Riely Gordon (1863-1937), a famous American public architect. The building was built in Texas granite and red sandstone in a unique Roman revival style. The foundation was laid in 1892 and the construction work continued until 1897. The court building is magnificent, and next to it is the Justice Goddess Fountain built in 1896. The fountain's top is a blind Roman goddess, Ivstitia. The scales represent justice, and the sword represents the symbol of power, the final arbiter.
Many members of the Chinese lawyers' group visited the American court for the first time to observe the trial procedure of the common law. The trial observation in Bill County District Court made everyone feel very fresh.
Entering the courtroom made people feel not depressed, but very relaxed. As Valentine's Day approached, the courtroom's judge's seat and jury seat were hung with red "Happy Valentine's Day" and heart patterns, and the parties' seat and the clerk's desk were placed with transparent candy trays filled with candy, chocolate and lollipops.
The bench is Mary Lou Alvarez judge and a total of five people including the clerk of the trial team. The trial is completely open to the community. There are parties to attend the trial on site. There are parties to participate in the trial through Zoom remote. The court has bailiffs to guide the personnel and maintain order.
Judge Mary Lou Alvarez presided over the trial today is very busy. She needs to deal with many cases at the same time, when presiding over a case trial, may also deal with the issuance of documents in another case, this "cross trial" shows her very skilled multi-tasking ability and strong control ability. Even so busy, did not affect her in the court of the humor, on the one hand, may be family court trial need to give the parties a sense of ease, on the other hand, this is her unique work mode. Her lively in addition to the sense of humor, there are rich expressions. In short, her trial is very interesting.
Thanks to the outstanding cooperation of the trial team and the professional ability of each post, the speed of the trial case is very fast. Handed to Judge Mary Lou Alvarez material, she will quickly but very carefully look at, no problem directly issued; in the trial process, no found the court is not satisfied with the documents handed to her signature, returned to correct the situation.
After the afternoon session, Judge Mary Lou Alvarez welcomed the Chinese lawyers and introduced the court to them. She patiently and carefully answered the questions raised by the Chinese lawyers. As for the question raised by the Chinese lawyers about the mixed trial of civil and criminal cases in family trials, Judge Mary Lou Alvarez said that it was not common, but would be handled according to the case conditions if necessary. As for the open trial that everyone was interested in, including whether the privacy protection would be affected by the online "queue" of different cases when the parties can know other cases, Judge Mary Lou Alvarez believed that open trial cases were the most common way in Texas courts, but the judges would also decide the specific trial methods according to the case conditions.
At the end of the visit, Judge Mary Lou Alvarez took a group photo with everyone and said she would be happy to send the photo to her YouTube account.
