Last Wednesday I attended court with the housing charity I work for as a volunteer. This time at court was however a little different in that on previous occasions I have been accompanied by a solicitor from shelter. Today I ran the session, with the help of a trainee who is only at the stage of taking instructions rather than advocacy.
I personally represented 7 people at court in the space of two and a half hours, with most people going away happy. There was again unfortunately one eviction which I thought was entirely unfair as they had a buyer for the property, but the Judge was unwilling to suspend the warrant because the contracts had not been exchanged.
I did however come up against a strange phenomena which slightly threw me. I will call it the 'over helpful Judge'. Now I'm not saying that having a friendly Judge is a bad thing, but this Judge had her own ideas of exactly what was best for the client, regardless of what my instructions were. In fact in one case I had suggested the exact same solution to the client, but had been turned down, only for it to be accepted when made by the Judge ten minutes later.
I think the problem is is that the Judge is so used to defendants not being represented that she has developed a style in that she becomes both their representative and Judge. A lot of the time my carefully thought out submissions and facts were useless as she proceeded to ask the client all of the questions rather than me. But there we go, the important thing is a good outcome for the client so I can't complain too much.
I have also been asked by the coordinator whether I would be willing to take on the role of a mentor for a future volunteer. This is of course quite a compliment to my own work, but a lot of responsibility. I have agreed as I think that it will be an excellent experience, and will improve my work as I will have to think even more about how I work so that I can pass on best practice to the new volunteer.
Posts to come soon include the result of the elections at my uni, where I am running for a part time executive position, the target pupillage fair, and also the law students dinner at Lincolns Inn that I will be attending in March.
All the very best,
BoB
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13 comments:
WOW, BoB,
All sorts of Very Clever Chambers will be queueing up to grab you, your CV must now be several FEET long!
Seriously though, It seems to me that you have the most wonderful work ethic and one that is to be greatly envied.
So you're off to a Domus at Lincoln's?! I hope its better than the one I attended at Gray's - the food was bloody AWFUL!!!
I went last year and was pleasantly suprised by:
a) The quality of the food;
b) The excellent company;
c) The suprisingly respectable claret that was served.
I went to this meal last year and I really enjoyed it. I imagine the speechs before the meal will be exactly the same but it would be silly to miss out the opportunity to network.
So the urban myth of the Baked Potato a la Microwave is completely unfounded?!
(btw - good on yer for networking)
So the urban myth of the Baked Potato a la Microwave is completely unfounded?!
(btw - good on yer for networking)
Hey Gandalf....the best food is Inner Temple. Forget Grays, Lincolns and the other one. Get your arris into Inner.
Say you know The P....and the door will open.
My Dear Mr P,
I'll have you know that The food is only good at Inner because you lot pinched our Chef!!!
Hey Minxter....the Inner Chef (Martin Cheesman) used to be the personal chef of dear departed Robert Maxwell.
God rest his soul.
O well, then, Mr P, if that's the case, you can have him.....
How was the pupillage fair?
I missed it due to an illness called a "cold" which I hear is quite fatal, and some lazyness.
Laziness? What you lazy? Now that is a surprise.
Beware of the demon drink.
Have never lied about being lazy. It is all clear to see. Me and the demon drink are invited to good places, we shall go far together I'm sure.
Perhaps people should only post relevant comments on other people's blogs?
I find dining less of a chore than I had expected. Good for meeting a range of different types - nice to talk to criminal hacks from the circuit who are a lot more interesting than the commercial types!
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