Starter's orders part 5

Although as indicated last week original documents should never be sent to barristers, sometimes they are. Whilst sometimes solicitors who do this are "serial offenders" occasionally someone will send original documents in error. This happened once in a very distinguished Chambers. One of their most important instructing solicitors sent some instructions in a very important case for their most important client. When sending the instructions for an urgent advice, given the time constraints the assistant included certain important and irreplaceable original documents. When the urgent advice had been given, the documents were retained in chambers. Whilst more work was required on the case, the solicitors wanted the original documents back. When he looked for them, the barrister could not immediately find them, but said there would be no problem, he would get back to them.

The barrister was a very busy junior. Busy juniors are about as busy as it is possible for a human being to get. When you become a silk (QC) you are busy, but you have fewer cases and you have other people to help you work on them. Ask any QC and you'll be told that the most frantic period of practice was as a junior. Thus this barrister would have tidal waves of paperwork all over his office and in storage.

At first he was not too concerned about being unable to find the papers. However the message from the solicitors left no doubt as to how important the original documents were. When several checks had failed to find them, initial nervousness set in. Now the Clerks were drafted in. They went through the room with a fine tooth comb. The papers were not to be found. They did it again "just in case". Still no sign. Everyone was starting to panic a little now. If the original documents were lost, then the solicitor's most important client would sack him and probably sue him. Relations with chambers were unlikely to be brilliant as a result of that.

The search was now extended to all rooms in chambers just in case the papers had inadvertently been moved elsewhere. This was a barrister version of the American nuclear alert being raised to "DEFCON 3". By now about half of the time of staff in chambers was being spent looking for the papers. There was an unsubstantiated rumour that even part of the carpets were taken up in an attempt to see if they could have slipped from sight. Still nothing. The situation was becoming critical. The only assumption was that someone could have inadvertently taken the papers home with some other papers. An informal gathering of all barristers pupils and staff took place to discuss how each should search at home. This was the last hope. The other option was that they had inadvertently been shredded. That was not an option that anyone wanted to consider might have occurred.

The importance of finding these papers were stressed that the meeting. Their name was given. The pupil piped up "is that the case of "X"? I know where they are.". Everyone looked relieved. "It was an interesting case so I took it home to have a look at. Did I do the wrong thing? I didn't know anyone was looking for them.". (Chambers gossip for three days had been about nothing else). Probably the only reason he was not strangled on the spot was because there were too many witnesses.

However this illustrates that barristers are not ones to hold grudges and that pupils are judged on their merits. The pupil survived this catastrophe, was made a tenant, and is now highly successful QC.