Frank Talk

Once again I was unable to attend this particular field trip to the Hillsborough County Clerk of Courts due to my internship, but from the sounds of it, this may not have been the worst of fates. After watching the video I am more than floored by the shear amount of information that Pat Frank is able to manage.

The world of legal reporting is admittedly not my first choice. In fact it is not even really in the running. Perhaps backwards and seemingly contradictory in nature, I would rather be a lawyer than a legal reporter. This is simply because if I am going to be doing that much research, deciphering, legal work, managing and seemingly monotonous work I want to make the most money I can.

However, this does nothing if not further my admiration for Pat Frank. Keeping track of records for longer than a good amount of people live is a task not for the feint of heart. Felonies stay on your record for 75 years and the clerk's office is responsible for keeping these records of every person in the county who has ever committed a felony, misdemeanor or whatever the crime may be.

So needless to say I was somewhat baffled by Frank's admission: "...in our case there are 20 circuits in the state but there are 67 clerks so this is very confusing because you've got in some circuits multiple clerks and that leads to some confusion. In our case we're the 13th Judicial Circuit and we're only one county...Hillsborough, so it's a very simply relationship."

While the statement of having one clerk in stead of multiple makes sense in order of a hierarchy, it fails to take into account that Hillsborough is it's own Judicial Circuit, because it makes up such a large portion of the Florida population thus making Frank solely accountable for that much more information.

In summation: it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to work there.

Anyone who wants to can visit Pat Franks blog cleverly entitled Frank Talk by clicking here.