Professionalism in the courtroom is a broad concept, former District Court Judge Alexander “Sandy” Horneman-Wren SC told the audience at the Queensland Law Society’s Symposium on Friday.
The recently retired judicial officer delivered a session with barrister Tim Ryan KC to round off the packed one-day conference at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre.
“It’s everything from being prepared to being courteous, to knowing what the rules are – it’s effectively everything that we do in court because it is a very professional space for the profession,” he said.
His Honour said professionalism was a quality which demonstrated itself “very quickly” in the way practitioners conducted themselves.
“It’s all the things that we should do so that we end up with the public having confidence in the process, which is the judicial system,” he said.
Tim agreed, saying practitioners should also consider how conduct appeared to the client or the public in the courtroom.
He added that an element of this was how practitioners interacted with the bench and opponents.
“What is it that we as advocates can do to reduce the chance of the judicial officer, before whom we’re appearing, becoming tetchy or agitated or displeased, because this is something that we’ve all encountered at one stage or other in your career,” he said.
Tim Ryan KC and Sandy Horneman-Wren SC.
Session chair Dan Rogers, Legal Director at Robertson O’Gorman Solicitors, took the opportunity to ask the former judge what it was that made judicial officers tetchy.
“Frustration,” His Honour replied.
“I think what gets judges tetchy is when you (practitioners) have your matter called, you understandably think that your matter is the only matter of the day, the only matter on the judge’s list and you’ve got no idea about what awaits them when they go back upstairs to chambers, particularly if you’ve (then judge) got reserved judgments piled up which you’ve got to go and write.
“And it’s really, in essence, I suppose, time wasting.
“I don’t mean that in just the sense that you’re wasting my time, but rather a lack of that efficiency – that’s the element of doing justice according to law efficiently – that I think weighs on all judicial officers.
“You really don’t have any idea about how busy judges are until you actually get there.”
Tim said efficiency could be enabled by identifying and clearly presenting four factors for any type of matter: the order sought, why it is sought, the evidence to support it, and the power of the court to make it.
In dealing with a lack of professional conduct by opponents and judicial officers, the best advice was to not engage, he said.
“I think overall it doesn’t go on a great deal. Those who act irresponsibly are quickly identified within the profession,” he said.
“Apply strictly the rules that apply in the courtroom … and the rules will be your best friend in most cases.”
Tim said the power of the adjournment was also often overlooked, especially when serious accusations were made against a practitioner, such as misleading the court.
“Usually at that stage I would think the sensible thing to do is to ask for an adjournment,” he said.
“That’s a very good strategy for two reasons.
“If the judicial officer has over-reached, it gives them an opportunity to reflect upon what’s occurred and they might themselves see that what they’ve done is an unfair criticism of you and when the matter resumes a little later in the day, hopefully things have sorted out and there’s peace in the valley.
“Alternatively, if not, at least you’ve gone away and had an opportunity to consider your position and seek come advice from an ethics counsellor or a friend or more senior person and satisfy yourself that you’re on the right track, and you’ve done nothing wrong and develop, hopefully, some strategy for sorting things out.”
Professionalism in the courtroom was a session in the Symposium’s new Extension track, which complemented the regular six tracks of family, succession, criminal, property, personal injuries and commercial law.
A record crowd attended this year’s event.
A record 750 practitioners attended Friday’s event, which culminated in Symposium By Night networking drinks.
Keep an eye on Proctor for social photos from Symposium.
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