Reasons why you can’t start a criminal case at 9am.

(Welcome to my twitter page where 20,000 people enjoy this journey into the abyss, pull up a chair, the people are nice.)

A thread:

1) At the moment, for a 10am start, I wake up at 5 or 6 depending on prep required and commute time. I finish any prep early in the morning then go to court. I usually arrive at court for 08:45 or 9.

2) Barristers travel all over the country for court. That’s it. That’s the model. So you might live in Brighton and be off to Cambridge. But next week it might be Norwich. And last week it might have been Bristol.

We wave to each other on train platforms like bus drivers

3) Morning prep exists because we often operate a Warned List system. That’s it. That’s the model.

What that means is a trial could come in ANY DAY during a week or two. It’s like a surprise exam - except someone’s liberty is at stake. And they’re often returned at short notice.

WHAT A STUPID SYSTEM, I hear you cry in the distance. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? 5pm, sometimes 6pm, you might get some papers you’ve never seen before and be addressing a jury within 16 hours. And you’ve got to do some sleeping in that time. Maybe. But hey ho. That’s what we do.

If you’re fortunate enough not to get a last minute return then it’s probably a Fixture (date that is not warned) and you STILL have work to do right before the trial because: this is a jury trial and those tend to matter. Like any big meeting / event at your work - you prep it.

4) So when I arrive at court at 08:45/9, I haven’t been sat about in my pyjamas eating toast. I’ve probably been up till midnight working. And up at 5am working. And undertaking a cross-country travel exercise like Bear Grylls lugging a wheelie suitcase and a wig/gown with me.

5) It’s 08:45/9. Welcome to court! You need to: sign in so you get paid, get your bands, wig and gown on, find your client or police officer, TALK TO THEM ABOUT THE TRIAL, find your opponent like blind date by walking about with their (flattering) website photo, talk to them.

If your client is in the cells you need to go there. You need to sign in. You need to be searched with a wand. You need to show ID and sign some forms. You need to sign your laptop in.

MOST CELLS DONT OPEN TILL 9:30AM.

Can you imagine the stress when you’re starting at 10.

6) Talking to your client is important. It might be you think they should reconsider their plea. It might be there’s a witness or piece of evidence you need to know more about. It might be CCTV (to watch) or 999 calls (to listen to). But it’s hard work. And you need rapport.

7) I hate to highlight a big open thing but often - very often - the case is called on at 10am to “ask for time”. Basically this means the court sits on time - any “statistics” would show that it sat on time - but we’re not actually ready to do anything. There’s lots to do.

8) No matter how hard you prep before you get to court there’s more to do. A witness has gone to Ibiza and is abandoned - gotta adjust the whole case. A co-defendant decides to plead - gotta adjust the whole case. A defence witness has pitched up(!) -might change the whole case.

9) Sometimes, not always, the people before the court lead difficult lives. They might be unwell. They might be addicted to something. They might not have ready access to childcare or transport. They’re sometimes late to court. The entire process above is then delayed.

10) Sometimes the prison van is delayed. So you’re knocking on the cell door, it’s 9:30 and the clock is ticking but you can’t get cracking because the van is still on the North Circular- which you managed to navigate perfectly punctually but here we all are now so stop crying.

11) Example reasons why trials get delayed:
* the ceiling is leaking
* the WiFi has broken
* one of the witnesses has been arrested
* one of the defendants has been arrested
* there’s no interpreter
* there’s an interpreter but they’re Russian not Spanish

12) And some of my wonderful colleagues do this with kids and other caring responsibilities. With babies. They do the prep and the travel and the chaos and the warned lists and the late nights and early mornings and they just about cling on because 10am starts are just about ok.

13) Do you see the problem? Briefing that courts only sit 10-4 as if we’re all delicate part-timers who float in after a leisurely morning stroll and float home for cocktails at 5 is ludicrous. You’ve got to do the reverse commute. You’ve got to work when you get in.

14) On top of that this profession doesn’t have a HR department. We volunteer, we mentor, we interview, we train, we teach, we help those who want to enter this profession. For free. I give up Saturday after Saturday and so do many others.

15) Like many professions - we are up for long days and sustained hard work. But we are already doing them. And we’re doing them with low fees, no travel pay, no pensions, no holiday pay, no maternity leave.

16) We need a well-informed response. It can’t ignore the chaos on the ground, the reality of what happens in courtrooms. Corporate chat about “sweating assets” will backfire.

If you sweat assets too far - they lose their value.

And this system is valuable. Let’s protect it.