RE: "...find it quite galling sometimes that the courts somehow seem to consider that their time and their rights overrule those of everybody else.' etc.
A bit like when we're sitting in Doctor's waiting rooms for hours on end awaiting our appointments!! But I hear what you're saying dear Doctor. I had to give evidence in a Coroner's Inquest and the whole business was SO inconvenient for everyone involved by the time they'd postponed it several times....not to mention the times people turned up to give evidence and were not 'called' at all on that particular day. And people had been flown in from elsewhere to give their evidence, having moved town since the 'death'.
I was the first to give evidence and it was woefully obvious that all the legal persons involved didn't have a curlew about the evidence we were giving. I had to read out my notes (from YEARS before) to the court, and had to translate and decipher all our common medical abbreviations for the court. Of course you can't expect people to have an everyday knowledge of areas they don't work in, but these people are making important decisions about others lives. (However I didn't mind one thing I had to decipher: the lawyer asked 'What does 'TLC given' mean?' to which I replied 'Tender Loving Care'....I was glad for some 'tenderness' in there as it's awful for the families having to go through stuff years later when they should be healing.)
The inadequacy of the whole business was highlighted when the court asked for some respiratory equipment to be brought from the hospital, so someone was called and raced it over......only to have the Coroner put them on the spot and ask how it all worked. This was their 'evidence'.....the poor woman who was merely the 'courier' had to bumble through an unexpected explanation - she did well, but what if she got the explanation all arse about? Yes, this was a country town situation....but sometimes it gets a little farcical. As I repeated (ad nauseum) 'I can't recall', the Coroner (who was actually a Magistrate 'acting up') said, obviously irritated: 'I'm getting a bit tired of hearing 'I can't recall' - and I was the first witness! So I said to him: 'How would you like me to express myself when I can't remember any details?' (Yes, I thought he was a pompous arse!) I asked our lawyer later if I was out of order, but he just smiled and said 'We all knew what you meant!'
This 'Coroner' after a lunch break and seeing that our lawyer wasn't in his seat, asked imperiously 'And WHERE is Mr Suchandsuch?' So I stood from the (peanut) gallery and said 'In the toilet I believe, your Honour' (because I had seen him go in!) Those around me nearly crawled under their seats!! I think I was supposed to refer to him as 'Your Worship' as well, so was politically incorrect on two counts! Yes, we must show our courts their due respect, but people taking themselves a little too seriously? Pfft. The farce ended with the 'person' central to the reason we were all there, not having to get on the stand at all because it might be prejudicial to other professional proceedings yet to come...this seemed so grossly unfair. All of us pulled from lives and jobs (someone had to change their overseas holiday!), sitting around at the whim of the court.....and in the end the bloody person who was the reason we'd all had to go through this thing got to stay in her seat, and it was ultimately an open finding. IMO it should never have got that far, and it was so, so stressful for some of those having to testify. (Not me, as I was the furtherest removed from the death, and had worked two shifts before - needed for 'background' info).
And the point of all my blather? The 'law' whilst necessary, is also full of a lot of argy bargy and manoeuvring and posturing and manipulation.......and a waste of $$$$ and time. But it's all that we have, and I trust that both the QPS and our justice system will do their darndest to get it right.....as will the jury of our peers (I've just got myself OUT of doing jury duty because of 'work commitments'.....however my 'real' reason is that I won't be compensated for my time away from work, and if I should happen upon a case such as GBCs then it might take months! I don't want to receive less than quarter of my income for months on end, do I? Do any of us? Am I a bad citizen?)
However despite my unhappy experience in testifying (which has coloured my opinion of legal proceedings), can I say to Hawkins that you are the epitome of what our law people SHOULD be...you describe everything so clearly and succinctly and clearly espouse the standards and attitudes that our justice system aspires to....and we are very lucky to have you here. As someone else said, you 'ground' us (ie slap us down and tell us how it really is/shouldbe in the kindest, most tactful and respectful way.....love how you 'roll'. Have to admit though....while you were sipping Margeuritas at Noosa with your colleagues, did you have a wry smile to yourself as you tapped out replies to we websleuthers, with your buds thinking you were probably attending to some important legal business? I want you to know that you are doing an important community service by 'educating' us, and it is greatly appreciated!