Being there part 11
After the judge had just been gratuitously (and wrongly) offensive to both of us, the prospect for myself and my opponent of travelling off to a site visit with him and spending some threequarters of an hour in the car together did not seem particularly pleasant.
The judge warmed up a bit in the car. (Obviously we weren't going to talk about the case except with the solicitors and clients there, so unless the journey was to pass in total silence someone had to talk about something). The judge started off by complaining about the hotel that he'd had to stay in the night before. He didn't like being away from home, the bed was uncomfortable and the breakfast rubbish.
Having got his various complaints of his chest the judge then turned into a person who was unrecognisable from His Grumpiness who had appeared in the court room not very long before. He began to regale us with various "war stories" from his time as a barrister. Usually involving him either just having avoided being late for court, or on occasions having managed to be late through no fault of his own and having had to fend off an irate judge. My opponent and I raised discreet eyebrows to one another. It seemed a bit rich, the performance we had just witnessed, against some of the stories he was now telling us. It was also quite plain to both of us that if the judge had travelled from home that morning, or had liked the hotel or even the breakfast, we would have been faced with a much more helpful and courteous tribunal.
Better late than never though. The judge grasped matters quickly on the site visit, and from then on was exemplary in his handling of the case. We managed to finish the whole case in a little over a day. This saved nearly 3 days of court time. Since my clients had won, the problems little more than 24 hours before seemed mercifully a distant memory.
Having concluded the case, the judge called both barristers into Chambers. He said that he had been out of order in his comments the previous day, and apologised to both of us. We both accepted his apology.
Of course that did not completely meet the situation. The comments in court had been made in front of our solicitors and clients. The apology was made in private. Therefore for all the clients may have thought, the judge's position could have been unaltered and they could have considered that we are both made an error worthily of a judicial dressing down for both of us. (The client may have taken the view that the judge was the person best placed to know what was and is not acceptable, particularly since the judge was courteous and polite all the rest of the time. Paradoxically if the judge had been rude and intemperate the whole time the clients might have been less inclined to pay attention to what he had been like and said at the outset.).
However, although the apology was not perfect I admire the judge for being big enough to apologise. I also thought he was a good judge. (And I had formed a view before he gave judgment so that I knew I had won). I would only like to appear in front of him though if he had had a decent breakfast.