Your bench needs you

All over the place there are notices up in robing rooms that ask us: have you ever thought of a judicial career? They are a bit like those 'Your Country Needs You' posters, but without the moustache. For much of our careers the answer to the question, like so many questions posed on posters and advertisements, has been a pretty clear: 'No, actually.' Being a judge seems so far away from what we do '“ being unnaturally quiet, not getting worked up about the outcome of the hearing, fooling about with your mates in the robing room and so on '“ that it appears to be an alien job, existing in a parallel universe to the court rooms that we inhabit.

When I was a pupil I was sent off to spend three days with a senior member of chambers who was sitting as a recorder. It was a very self-conscious thing to do, but pretty useful as well. The first thing I realised, and I try always to remember, is that the judge, sitting up there, can see EVERYTHING. This is well worth remembering when you are busy in a bored moment doing an amusing drawing of His Honour on the back inside cover of your notebook. The judge also notices when you do not know what you are talking about '“ the under-prepared barrister who is fluffing about in his papers trying to find the right page number is like a rabbit in the headlights. You can begin to see why some become impatient with that sort of thing, or with counsel who is not in court when he should be.

You also learn that the jolly nice usher is of course the court's usher and not actually the barristers' exclusive mate. The usher will be relaying bits and pieces of information back to the judge, again about who is ready and what is likely to happen and so on. The court clerk is the judge's clerk '“ so again is going to be much closer to the judge than to you. It helps to remember all of this, particularly if you are feeling a bit aggrieved about a decision that has not gone your way and you sound off about it after the judge has risen. It's not so much that the walls have ears, rather that the usher has ears.

Any regrets?

Some barristers go on the bench reluctantly and with an air of regret that it is all over '“ all that submitting and pleading and examining and crossing of swords and mitigating. Others are mad keen and feel that they have found their proper home. Some have their worries '“ that they are going to have lunch with the same people for the next 15 years, for example, or that they will not be able to slope off early of an afternoon having finished for the day, or that they might get bored.

So, back to the question '“ have you ever thought of becoming a judge? Well of course, and sorry but I do have to do this one, most of us do not have the Latin for judging. But have we got the rest of it? People who are judges say that the hardest part of the job is sentencing, that this is the side of the job that they really do not like. This is reassuring '“ many lay people may think that that must be the best bit, sending all those villains off to receive their just deserts and cleaning up the streets. One person said to me that the day you enjoy sending somebody to prison is the day you should stop being a judge. So, being less worried about not having the Latin, I think most of us, when asked the question on the poster, would answer: 'Maybe, but I am not relishing the sentencing.'

The guts for it

And it is reassuring. There is an outcry about the Baby P sentences recently handed out, with people complaining that they are not long enough and over-looking the time already spent on remand and the fact that under the sentencing regime they are not automatically going to be released in a very short period of time. Our society hands out longer sentences to more people of both sexes and all ages than probably most other European countries. We have a strong blood-lust/lynch-mob mentality in the United Kingdom '“ look at all those people who turn up to shout and throw things at prison vans. All that stands in the way of the mob is the guts of the judges who '“ with no right of reply '“ have to endure the scornful headlines and the vox pop rants before turning up the next day to deal with another set of difficult circumstances and take responsibility in the name of society.

No wonder they sometimes get it wrong '“ and we should all be grateful that most of the time they get it right. Perhaps then the poster question should really read: 'Have you got the guts to be a judge?' There, that would get everybody thinking.