Got a chance to impress people with a trick from back home today. Our investigators were having trouble tracking down a woman who was refusing to pay child support and generally doing her best not to be found. I mentioned that in England the electoral roll is considered publicly information so is readily available because most people don’t know about it. So we called up the American electoral register number and turns out things are the same here: we gave them a name and they provided an address, no questions asked!

I spoke to some of our clients in the detention centre today. I had been back there with Steve but this was the first time alone. Although a little intimidating (some of those kids are huge!) it was a cool experience. Obviously they treated me with a fair bit of respect since I was working to get them out of there, and I was generally explaining to them how their case was going. After yesterday I realised I can now predict how some cases would go based on the information in our files. I also spoke to the girl from Wednesday’s case and feel a lot better about that one now. She didn’t understand what the Judge’s ruling had been, and while explaining it to her, I emphasised how lucky she had been and I honestly think she will try to straighten herself out now.

Today I was also researching past cases and looking for precedents on the delightful topic of sexual battery (in this case whether or not an act can be classified as “sexual battery” while those involved are clothed – the answer is yes, and in this case the clothing can act as the required “instrumentation”).

And I finally managed to get my hair cut. It was too long even before I came out here, so it’s a great feeling to dump that extra weight! And more importantly my hair stands up properly now – spiky hair seems something of a rarity out here, so does attract a little attention. Weirdly, this was the first time I’ve had my hair cut by someone different in about five years!