Well today has been a fun Friday. This morning I was before a High Court Judge who was sitting in the Crown Court. I'd been before the same Judge on a number of previous occasions. I went into court and shuffled my way along Counsels' row. I looked down and saw the following stuck to the inner side of the bench: "REFER TO HIS LORDSHIP AS 'MY LORD". I had to laugh. You see you can spot a High Court Judge a mile off owing to the robes that he is wearing and that the list outside says 'Mr Justice X'. Also, the reminder was potentially confusing as, depending on the context, you may wish to refer to 'my lord' as 'your lordship' or you may wish to refer to 'his lordship' as 'my lord'. You get the point. I've never seen a Judge get angry if you get his title wrong, although I have heard horror stories from other Counsel. If in doubt, go up I say. You often hear unrepresented defendants referring to District Judges as 'Your Honour' and the Judge never corrects them. They probably quite like it.
Anyway, having sped through my morning matters, I rushed off to the Youth Court for an afternoon trial. The Defendant had previously pleaded guilty to a number of matters and was standing trial on a single offence to which he maintained his innocence. We went into court and sat down. The usher announced the case and for reasons best known to herself told the Magistrates that Master X had previously pleaded guilty to offences A, B and C and was here in respect of offence D. All credit to the Chairman who said 'Well that's that- we can't hear the trial now. It wouldn't be fair on the Defendant.' And thus the matter was adjourned. It was so refreshing to hear the Chairman say that as you often get the line 'we can put that out of our minds'. What a load of old nonsense that is but I might return to that subject on another day.
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