@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret Just to give you a couple of example:
First:
Years ago as a pupil I represented a woman who presented as battered wife; she said her husband had on this occasion stabbed her with a broken milk bottle, not a deep wound but a nasty one for which she had had to have stitches & ..1/
First:
Years ago as a pupil I represented a woman who presented as battered wife; she said her husband had on this occasion stabbed her with a broken milk bottle, not a deep wound but a nasty one for which she had had to have stitches & ..1/
@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret ...there was no doubt about it because while we were waiting to get on, the stitches came apart & she had to go to hospital & be re-stitched & my solicitor took her & had to speak to the treating doctor so the judge could be told when she was coming back. It was an emergency ..2/
@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret ... injunction so the husband hadn’t been served & wasn’t there & there had to be a further hearing. I didn’t for one moment doubt the wife’s account. Day of the next hearing she rang the solicitors, said there had been a reconciliation & wouldn’t be coming. Not that unusual ..3/
@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret ...but when I got to court, there was husband with legal team & witnesses, they were happy wife wasn’t proceeding but there had been no reconcilliation. On the day the assault was meant to have happened the husband & wife, it turned out had been on a Christian fellowship ...4/
@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret ...coach trip to Madame Tussaud’s. They could have brought the whole coach to say everything had been perfectly amicable, I was told, but they had settled for the 4 sitting nearest - & the vicar! It was in too short a time frame for there to have been any mistake about dates ..5/
@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret ... something had happened but what? A good example of why a barrister shouldn’t presume to know what isn’t known.
Second:
Years later, a personal injury case. A man who had been a hearse driver had injured his back & could no longer drive. I had a pupil by that time. After ...6/
Second:
Years later, a personal injury case. A man who had been a hearse driver had injured his back & could no longer drive. I had a pupil by that time. After ...6/
@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret [a powercut!!!] ...a conference during which he had patiently & carefully gone through his symptoms & all the things they prevented him from doing: gardening, cycling & driving hearses, my pupil commented “He’ll make a brilliant witness, what a thoroughly nice man”. After ...7/
@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret ... having advised on damages, my next involvement in the case was advising some weeks later on the impact of a video, which showed during the course of a single day, the client balancing balletically on a rockery in the course of a gardening session before leaping on to ...8/
@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret ...his bicycle to nip to the shops, after which he got into his car to go to a local garage, where he took a new hearse out for a test drive.
I have, equally, had cases in which the seemingly wildly improbable account of my client has been triumphantly borne out by independent 9/
I have, equally, had cases in which the seemingly wildly improbable account of my client has been triumphantly borne out by independent 9/
@David_Whiteside @BarristerSecret ... evidence which emerged during the course of a trial. Yes, in the course of advising one will test what one is told but if the client’s instructions are clear all one can do is to put the client’s case & remember that someone else is there to make a judgment. 10/10
