Rest is squeezed out, work is endless: If you don’t take the opportunity to rest when you can, the upcoming workload might overwhelm you. Similarly, resting should be done skillfully. Don’t just collapse after work; try doing some stretching exercises first. Court work rarely involves physical activity, except for those like me who ride around in police cars.

Work is the process of waiting to get off: This is similar to life being the process of waiting for death. Many people in the court are anxious every day, with playing computer games, watching movies, and reading newspapers being the main activities to pass the time. Similarly, if you want to build good relationships with court staff, you need to put effort into these waiting periods. Many people in our bureau play PES08, with piles of worn-out fake Beidou controllers under their desks. Unfortunately, I’m not into that, otherwise…

Dealing with court staff, don’t expect punctuality: If they say work starts at 8:30, it’s good if a few people show up by 9:00. Similarly, don’t be too strict about meeting times with court staff; they often delay or even make excuses to avoid meetings.

The court is not a place that requires much legal knowledge: Apart from judges and a few key department staff, most court employees don’t need to know much about the law. Everyone follows the procedures on paper; the simpler your mind, the less burdened you feel. So, don’t call every court official “judge”; the term “judge” has been devalued because of the many physically strong but legally ignorant people in the court.

The court is not an absolutely serious place: Earlier, it was said that you couldn’t dress casually, wear slippers, or skirts. But once there, I found these taboos to be mere formalities. Dressing casually is no problem; dressing formally makes you stand out. As long as your attire isn’t too revealing or bizarre, it’s fine.

The court is not a place densely populated with elderly people: The impression of a judge is someone over 50, with white hair, a stern face, and a deep voice. In reality, most judges are young, with few over 50. Moreover, most judges are quite humorous and cheerful, not as rigid and serious as imagined.

No luxury cars in the court: Walking through the court, I didn’t find any high-end cars; most are economical. Even the court president drives a Toyota Prado, much more modest compared to the luxurious Honda Accords 3.0 often seen in other government agencies. As for salaries, young judges earn around 100,000 yuan annually, but that’s just the salary; whether there are other gray incomes is hard to say.

Many court staff are very empty: As I saw, several are around 25, with cars and houses but no wives, single men who watch TV dramas late into the night to relieve their worries. With such conditions, it’s surprising that no women appreciate them, whether due to information asymmetry or other undisclosed reasons.

The court is also in a weak position: We often compare state power with personal interests, where individuals are always weak against the state machinery. Why is the court also weak? Mainly due to its awkward position. Local government governance creates social messes, and the court has to clean up these messes while wearing a legal mask. Thus, conflicts between local governments and the public largely transfer to conflicts between the court and the public. Additionally, with lawyers being quite cunning (if I were a lawyer, it wouldn’t be called cunning but strong professionalism), the court faces pressure from all sides, naturally putting it in a weak position. An example is the incident on July 6th, where over 200 people collectively stormed the court where I was interning. Of course, the conflict still showed the public as weak, as several were reportedly to be sentenced…

The court is not an ideal workplace: What I see is this: the court is supposed to be a serious state organ, but court staff often have to grovel to get parties to settle or pay claims, and are often played by both parties and lawyers. It seems that the road to legalization in our country is indeed still long.