GERMAN LAW STUDENT FINDS DIFFERENCES IN COURTS HERE

As Kristiane Ropohl watched a jury award $500,000 in damages during a trial in federal court this week, she was amazed.

"Nobody in Germany would ask for that much," said Ropohl, a German law student.

Even after three previous trips to Southeast Missouri from Germany, Ropohl still finds aspects of American life that surprise her. Over the past three weeks her experiences have been more judicial as she has worked as an intern with the Bradshaw, Steele, Cochrane and Berens law firm.

Since she has studied English from fifth grade on, understanding the words spoken in court have not been hard. Interpreting them in context is another matter.

A hand-held electronic translator has helped her through bankruptcy proceedings, civil and criminal courts.

"The first times I was in court, I was typing all the time," Ropohl said.

Some concepts, like workers' compensation, required more than an electronic answer, she said.

Attorney Richard Steele said Ropohl picked up on new concepts quickly.

"Obviously she's getting a good education in Germany," he said.

With Ropohl's mother teaching elementary school and her father instructing high school students in English and religion, education has been a continual part of her life.

Ropohl first came to the United States in 1995 as a high school junior for a three-month exchange program. She stayed in New Haven, sister city to her hometown of Borgholzhausen.

Besides sharing rural surroundings, New Haven's residents were strangely familiar people, Ropohl said.

"Everybody acts as if they've known you for years," she said, noting this was a pleasant change from a more reserved Germany.

Ropohl has stayed with Bob and Brenda Moran during her first visit, again in 1997 and last September. This was after her parents became acquainted with the Morans when they and about 50 others from Borgholzhausen came to New Haven in 1995.

It's more the Morans than legal experience that brought Ropohl back to Southeast Missouri four times, she said. This time she is staying with Brenda Moran's sister in Perryville.

"They're like a part of my family," Ropohl said.

Although Bob Moran's German is still limited to saying Volkswagen and autobahn, he said the Ropohls have taught him something. "I've learned how similar people are," Moran said. "We live in a small world."

Older veterans who served in the military in Germany come up to Ropohl when they hear she's German, she said.

"They'll say how they flew over Germany in the war and tell about where they were stationed," she said. "Some will try to show me that they can speak German, but a lot of them are hard to understand. They speak with a strange accent. I pretend to understand just to be nice."

Probably the most interesting days Ropohl spent in court were at a five-day civil trial, she said. A woman from Zalma was suing a tool manufacturer for causing the death of her husband. Aspects of the case were foreign to her, she said.

"In the evidence, the lawyers appealed to the emotions in a typical American way," she said. "They talked about how the man went to church and how good he was."

Most Germans wouldn't seek the huge monetary damage awards handed out by American juries, Ropohl said.

"If someone dies, you can't make it better by giving money," she said.

Since German courts don't have juries, attorneys can only appeal to a judge, and the judge bases decisions on statutes, not case law.

"In Germany the judge would give the family the dead man's lost wages," Ropohl said. "A person would get no more than $20,000 in a car wreck."

In return for attending trials, law days and interviews with clients, Steele's firm filled out an affidavit for her law school, which she will turn in for internship credit.

At least Steele believes it's for the internship.

"The form was all in German," he said. "I hope she interpreted it correctly for me."