My first trial

Under fire for the first time

However many books you read, however much studying you do, whatever exercises you try, none of them are ever a substitute for experience of the real thing.

A soldier may take part in a large number of military exercises. He may read books about battles. It is rather different to suddenly find yourself for the first time in a battle and under fire.

It is the same as a barrister. There comes a point at which you first appear in court. Before I did my first case I had read a book about how lawyers view court appearances, in which a barrister from the Victorian era described his first court appearance as as dramatic a crisis as losing your virginity. He never specified precisely in which way (presumably there was no audience, still less a third-party judge to assess the performance) but plainly he wanted to get across that your first proper case it is one of the most dramatic and memorable moments of your life . When I read the words it was hard not to think of the comparison as ridiculous.

First Trial

Before your first trial or serious case you may well have already had a couple of court appearances which effectively involve saying very little. However there then comes the point when you have something difficult to do. Perhaps a trial. That will be the first time that you have asked questions for real. The first time that someone's future is to some extent in your hands.

My first trial was a criminal case. I was still doing pupillage, the training period for barristers. In the first six months of pupillage you cannot do any cases, you just watch and learn. In the second six, while you are still learning you are allowed to start doing work. Then the decision is made whether to keep you on and make you a "tenant" in Chambers. Late in the afternoon one day, I was given a brief and told to attend at Salford Magistrates Court the next day for a juvenile case. Solicitors do a lot of magistrates work. This particular solicitor, who was going to be doing the case himself was for some reason required elsewhere. Therefore I was going to be attending on my own, and would meet client and his father there.

The Defendant

I was acting for a lad of 15 or 16 who was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He had not been in trouble before. Whether he obtained a criminal record was in part down to my skill. If the prosecution witness evidence was not right, I had to test it and show that. Whilst the client will give evidence, and the magistrates could take their own view of him, he relied on me to expose any falsity or inconsistency in the prosecution case.

Not a promising start

The day did not get off to a promising start. The boy as expected attended with his father, a somewhat excitable Irishman who was understandably very worked up. Of course they were expecting their solicitor, Mr M. They had not known until that moment that he would not be doing the case. They had met him on a few occasions. They had no idea who I was, but it was obvious that I was only in my early 20s and therefore could hardly have had vast experience. "I was expecting our solicitor who knows the case" said the father. "How do we know what you're like? We've never even met you. What I'd like to know before you do my son's trial, is what experience you have?". This looked as though it was going to be a public relations disaster.

I could not tell him something that was not true, but I did not think it would be helpful to say that this was my first case. The client was understandably a bit nervous about the case, and my announcing that this was my first go at conducting a trial was unlikely to improve his feeling. (How would you feel if a surgeon about to operate on you said "I've never done this before."?!). What I said to the father was "You have confidence in your solicitor Mr M. He has briefed me to appear in this case. I am sure as you say he is very good. If he has instructed me that must mean that he is happy for me to do this trial. If you have confidence in him then, you should have confidence in me.".

The Trial

I knew I was getting somewhere with a prosecution witnesses and actually getting them to change their story. All the evidence was concluded by lunchtime, including the client giving evidence. During the lunch hour I was preparing my first closing speech. The boy's father came to see me. He said that whatever happened, whether his son was convicted or not, he did not see how the case could have been better presented and he wanted to take back everything he had said that morning. The icing on the cake when we got back was that I did not have to deliver my speech. The magistrates had been looking at the answers given by the prosecution witnesses and decided that they had to acquit.

Perhaps he had a point

Gratitude for your efforts is always welcome, whatever you're doing, but what really meant a lot about what the boy's father said was that he said it before he knew his son had been acquitted. I had started the day thinking that I could not have got off to a worse start, but by the end it all seemed pretty good.

As to the Victorian barrister that I quoted above, I do not know what his first day in court was like, but my first trial felt absolutely terrific. As I left court I wondered if perhaps he had a point.

Michael J. Booth QC