Smelling Safe

Following from somewhat recent events, security has been stepped up in both our Family and Subordinate Courts, and all entrants have not only to pass through strategically placed metal detectors, but also have their belongings frisked or X-rayed.

Obiter hears that one press reporter’s deodorant spray was thereby confiscated for the duration of her visit whilst covering the court beat. However, unlike some members of the public who have met these stepped up measures with grumbles and growls, she good-naturedly quipped, ‘Well, alright, so long as no one complains that I smell.’

Better smelly than sorry?

Giving Peace a Chance?

America may be the Land of the Free, but not for lawyer Stephen Downs. Reuters reports that Downs was arrested and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating ‘Give Peace a Chance’ which he had just purchased at the mall. Downs said police tried to convince him he was wrong in his actions by refusing to remove the T-shirt because the mall ‘was like a private house and that I was acting poorly.’

When he disagreed with their analogy, he was hauled off to night court where he was arraigned after pleading not guilty and released on his own recognizance.

Ironically, Downs is the director of the Albany Office of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints of misconduct against judges and can admonish, censure or remove judges found to have engaged in misconduct. His case will be heard on 17 March 2003. If convicted, he could face imprisonment of up to one year.

From the Bench — A Way with Words

‘The plaintiff says that he had difficulty understanding Ng because Ng allegedly has an accent. The contract, the policy, is in English. The contract does not have an accent. Condition 14 is in English. It does not have an accent. People have accents. The English language does not.’ [Montgomery v Canada West Insurance Co [1996] AJ No 820]

‘I do not agree that because Rhodes was decided 12 years ago its quality has somehow eroded. I am not aware of a principle of law that judgments of the highest court of this province are to be aged like accounts receivable and their precedential value is to be decreased in direct proportion to their age. Anyway, it can be forcefully argued that judgments of the Court of Appeal are like a good wine and improve with age.’
[Buchanan v Wassef 140 AR 313 1993]

‘I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking. But I do strongly object when they start shaking them to make sure that they are still going.’ [Lord Birkett]

‘The House of Lords is an infallible interpreter of the law. . . . the House of Lords has a perfect legal mind. Learned Lords may come or go, but the House of Lords never makes a mistake. That the House of Lords should make a mistake is just as unthinkable as that Colonel Bogey should be bunkered twice and take eight to the hole. Occasionally to some of us two decisions of the House of Lords may seem inconsistent. But that is only a seeming. It is our frail vision that is at fault.’ [Lord Sands (a Scottish judge), 1932]

Protecting Our Young

Whilst news of retrenchment has been hitting the press on a fairly regular basis now, some employers in law firms still complain that our young are shielded and are not hungry.

One senior practitioner lamented over the attitude of one of her younger charges, whom she described as having ‘a CEO mentality — she only wanted to sit back and sign the letters placed before her’.

Needless to say, this youngster has since moved on, though we cannot confirm, whether to the greener, cushier pastures she so aspired to.