Shock and awe part 5
Having last week that the young barrister should never be overawed, sometimes that is a proposition more easily stated than complied with. The following true story (as usual names etc changed to protect the guilty) is a salutary lesson about the need for preparation.
Fridays were always traditionally the days when the courts would either deal with pleas or appeals against sentence or conviction. Someone might have been convicted of an offence in the magistrates, and would have an automatic right of appeal to the Crown Court (albeit a judge sitting with magistrates, not with a jury). Alternatively they might appeal the length or nature of sentence. On this particular day a young barrister, who we should call Mr Lemon, had been instructed to prosecute three appeals against sentence and two appeals against conviction. They were all in the same court. He knew the order. He did not see any way in which the court would deal with all of them. Therefore he decided there was not much point preparing in any detail the second appeal against conviction, which was the last case listed to be heard. There was no chance in reality of it being reached, and if there was any prospect due to matters moving quickly on the morning he could have a look at the papers over the lunch break. Having prepared the first four cases, he decided not to stay up any later preparing the fifth case but just had a quick read of it and then went to bed.
What he had noticed was that the fifth case, the one he had not prepared, was that it was about a Greek who owned a restaurant, who had been the defendant before the magistrates and was now appealing (the appellant,). There were a number of people in the case as witnesses on one side or another, they were all Greek, and their names were all relatively similar. A quick look at the papers brought home to Mr Lemon the force of the old saying "it's all Greek to me". The appellant was a man who had never been in trouble, and Mr Lemon took the view that on the evidence the man had been extremely unlucky to be convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Anyway, it wasn't really for him he thought to worry about how to conduct a difficult case on the appeal since it would never be reached.
On arriving at court he saw outside a senior barrister, Mr Blue, a junior of some 20 years call. " Which case are you in?" Mr Lemon asked, and established that Mr Blue was acting for the Greek appellant. Mr Lemon patiently explained that there was not much point talking, since given the amount of time that the rest of the listed cases would take the case would not be reached. "This case will be reached all right" said Mr Blue. "My leader is Mr Green QC, and the court will want to accommodate him.". Mr Green QC was at the time one of the most celebrated criminal silks in the country. Mr Lemon was not going to rise to the bait. Why someone so much more senior wanted to try and fool him into thinking that he had a leader in the case Mr Lemon did not know, but he was not going to make himself look a fool by playing along with the charade. " That n an ideal world I absolutely agree that the case should be heard", he said, "but this case will not be heard because there are too many cases in front of it.".
He wandered into court and the court clerk told him that he should release the briefs in the first four cases because they were being transferred to other courts. The fifth case involving the Greek appellant would start in about five minutes as since the appellant had gone to be considerable expense of instructing Mr Green QC, it would be unfair if there was any risk of hearing being abortive.
We will leave Mr Lemon with his insides churning as they did on that day, and resume the story next week.