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!