Field Trip: Court House

On Tuesday my class took a trip to the courthouse in downtown Tampa. Entering the building reminded me of a security check at an airport. We had to empty our pockets, remove our belts, and pass through a metal detector. We first got a presentation from Pat. Her position in the courthouse is the Clerk of the Court. Pat is also the Controller of Hillsborough County, which is also known as the chief financial officer. As the chief financial officer she is responsible of investing and keeping eight billion dollars in county money. Pat explained how a corporation titled Justice Served looked over 3,000 websites around the world and nominated the Hillsborough Courthouse website to be in the top 10. After Pats presentation she handed over the reins to Doug, who walked us through the website. We learned how you could search online for public records on anyone in Hillsboruough County and their court files. These court files include everything from misdemeanors, marriages, and birth and death certificates. I became intrigued by this and began surfing the website for friends and family info. As both Pat and Doug explained the website is real easy to find things and very easy to use. After Doug’s presentation Dana led us on a tour of the multiple adjacent buildings. The courthouse is literally connected to multiple different buildings nearby. We didn’t have much time because most of my class was parked next to parking meters. Dana showed us where we would have to go in the courthouse to find information and hardcopy documents that can only be accessed at the courthouse. This will help everyone in my class because we were all assigned to an individual and we must to collect public records and documents about this person. When Dana was finished we raced over to our car to find that the parking meter had just hit 0 minutes and began flashing.