Professional Perils
Those who have been reading the news, or indeed the Monday article on this site, will know about the story that Heather Mills poured water over Paul McCartney's solicitor at the conclusion of their court hearing. How often does disorder in court occur, petty or serious, or how often are there consequences following on from a hearing?
The answer is relatively rarely. I have been cursed leaving court (although in terms that a commercial lawyer would regard as hopelessly unspecific: telling someone that you curse them to never have any luck when presumably what you mean to say is to wish them bad luck is pretty poor terminology even if you believe in that sort of thing). I have been sworn at both before the hearing started and after it. I have also been threatened leaving the court hearing, although when I pointed out that whilst threats didn't bother me they were unacceptable as an attack on the justice system, and if the person was going to continue with them we ought to step back into court so the judge could consider whether the man should be imprisoned for contempt, the man suddenly lost any enthusiasm for pursuing them.
The closest I got to water being thrown over me was when the counsel sitting next to me accidentally knocked over the carafe. In the Heather Mills saga Fiona Shackleton's hair was slicked back and wet as a result. Anyone who has seen my picture on this website will realise that in my follically challenged status I had nothing to fear from any hairstyle rearrangement. In fact, since some of the spilt water went over my laptop, I would much rather it had gone over me.
The only barrister I can think of who may have suffered as a result of a hearing was subject to an attack in the street which left him bleeding from the head and face, and vandalism to his car in a separate incident. However both incidents were ones which could have been entirely random, with nothing to specifically link them to any work he had done. The probability is that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Certainly nothing ever came to light to suggest that it was linked to his work, even though that was the original suspicion.
The wigs and gowns may help here. They are stylised. You are playing a role in the system of justice, just as an actor plays a part in a play. It may be a very important part, and the consequences may be severe, but each side is playing a role and fulfilling a duty. Most litigants understand that, which is probably why incidents involving lawyers are rare.
One story which did reach me was of a woman barrister who found herself passing someone she had had to cross examine in a fairly fraught case. As they passed two words were spoken loudly. They were a name and an Internet search revealed them to be those of a "star" of pornographic films who could be said to have had a vague resemblance to the barrister concerned. (There is no suggestion that they are one and the same!). I am afraid that I have no intention of revealing either name in this blog.