?...If our courts are just theaters and not places of justice, where as a nation are we headed?..." This excerpted juror's letter is one of many Judge Janice Law weaves into the electrifying narrative of her rookie year on a county criminal court bench in America's fourth largest city. What is it really like to be a judge? Accepting a suggestion from instructors at New Judge's School, Janice Law, a former print journalist, kept a meticulous daily diary of her explosive first year as judge in Harris County, (Houston) Texas, Criminal Court No. 5.