An Actual Heartwarming Story!

Lately we've been covering a lot of crazy cases, sanction motions, judges going wild and other assorted South Florida daily atrocities, so it's nice to see lawyers and judges doing something nice for a change:

Miami-Dade County Teen Court Program, under the administrative leadership of the Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust, trained a new wave of volunteer lawyers, bailiffs, clerks, and jurors during its annual summer Youth Volunteer Attorney Training Program and second annual Mock Trial Competition.

The training was spread over three days in July and August in the Moot Courtroom at St. Thomas University School of Law, 16401 N.W. 37 Ave. 

The students, from area middle and high schools, were greeted the first day by Douglas E. Ray, St. Thomas University School of Law dean and law professor. The students received training for courtroom trials sanctioned by the program’s volunteer training guidelines, which educated them in various facets of the judicial process.

The mission of Miami-Dade County Teen Court is to advocate and create opportunities for youth to develop into responsible citizens.
 

The judges helped the students sharpen their courtroom techniques, etiquette and other skills, as well as learn law terminology and courtroom decorum. 

Participants received 24 hours of community service credit for attending the classroom training sessions.

And let's single out some of the folks who committed their time and energy to the success of this project:

Kelly Charles-Collins, Stacy Cleveland and Ray McGee. Volunteer attorney coaches included Olanike Adebayo, Todd Bass, Miesha Darrough, Marcus Griggs, Sherria Williams and Jennie Wingad, as well as state Rep. Cynthia Stafford, who participated as one of the volunteer judges for the first half of the competition. 

See, we're not all bad!