First day in court

Brilliant!

There were lots of brilliant things about today.  Finally I have my wings, and they let me loose out of the office and in front of a Sheriff.

First thing first though, some preparation.  Did a little reading of the rules last night about the procedure (just in case I had forgotten it all from the diploma...) plus I ironed my shirt (!)  This morning arrived early in the office for a mad rush of checking the files that were due to call.  And then the big moment, picked up a gown and headed off to court.

One thing that was particularly brilliant was bumping into lots of people to say hello to -including many other people I was at uni with who have also recently been let loose in court by their firms.  And plenty of them were in the same court with me, getting a front row seat of my first time performance.

First was the callover, which was fine.  My attempt at sounding clear, measured and confident, and managing not to mess things up.  An early chance to see what the other side had to say - the opposite of what I was seeking, so just about everything had to call before the sheriff.

After lunch the Sheriff wandered in.  He wasn't led in with us all standing, he just walked in and sat down.  In his leather jacket, which he wore all afternoon.  Admittedly there were only about 6 other people in the court room.  He was very relaxed and jocular, and made plenty of jokes during the afternoon.  In fact, a very pleasant Sheriff to preside over my first appearance.

It was a brilliant afternoon, but went on and on and on.  There was one local agent there who had a massive volume of cases which he tried to stay on top of, but there were so many he hardly knew which were his until prompted.

Best of all the Sheriff was with me on the various things I was seeking so I could go back to the office with everything that was sought.

I'm looking forward to courtwork (and there should be plenty).

Court tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big day - my first appearance with a gown.

Over the last week there's been a few near appearances.  It looked like I was all set for an opposed incidental application later this week, so was preparing for it.  It looked like a good argument too, a great first outing.  And while I was preparing for that, one of my cases due to go to proof settled last minute.  Nearly had to deal with the incidental application on that one too - a similar argument - but both defenders changed their minds and decided not to oppose.

We always have a few summary actions calling.  Somebody else was due to deal with these, but after my near misses (and one of my colleagues saying I'd had a lucky escape) I was itching to actually get up and say something... so I asked if I could go along too and have a go.

So tomorrow morning it is.  Should be interesting.  It's only a few cases but the ones I've been given require some talking.  We'll see how it goes!

A year in...

I'm now a 1 year old trainee.  Got various papers ready to send off to the Law Society so that I can appear in court.  Will be interesting...

Work has been great this year but now it's become rather busy (... "get used to it"... ).  The caseload is increasing, but many of my cases have matured and are making their way through court.  It was one thing juggling the caseload before loads of them were in court, but now theres (1) serious deadlines (2) sudden court type things which crop up and need dealt with over other things (3) fear that I'm forgetting to submit something, or intimate something when I should and (4) dealing with other solicitors (not a bad thing, by the way!)... and this is all before I have to prepare for being in court myself

On the plus side, the work is still great so am still enjoying myself.  And I am looking forward to court! 

Almost a year

Can't believe I'm almost at the end of my first year.  The workload has been increasing, and now I'm endeavouring to keep all my balls in the air.  The case load has steadily increased, and am now doing all sorts of fun things - the cases come in from scratch, and I'm settling them, raising them, dealing with them whilst being litigated, organising cover (as yet still can't appear)... all under the watchful eye of my managing partner.

Now much of the work is about organisation.  There's all sorts of deadlines which run beside the need to manage each file to stay on top.  I'm discovering lots of things that I don't know how to do (and I thought I knew it all) so luckily there's loads of support where I work.

I'm looking forward to the next exciting stages.  There's the PCC to organise, and of course, there's my enrolment to apply for.  I've been warned that in the 2nd year I'll be swamped and unable to cope, so I've been working on all sorts of strategies and systems to make sure I'll be able to cope.  We'll see...!

Jury

Had an amazing week. Been involved in a big civil jury trial. They don't come around very often, so it was quite exciting to be involved. It didn't settle beforehand, or even on the morning it was due to start.

The case was interesting, the advocates were all excellent, and the judge impressive. There were objections galore with interesting discussions of the law. Everything you could hope for.

It was all very even handed and played fairly, with plenty of assistance and camaraderie between the advocates and the judge.

There was plenty of debate about the outcome and when it came it seemed reasonable.

It has been a thoroughly fascinating week!