In fact, His Honour shared so much wisdom that we’re making this a two-part series. Part One will focus on court etiquette and callovers, while Part Two will focus on more substantive listings like bail applications and sentences.
It’s rare to hear feedback from the bench, so grab a pen and take note of His Honour’s hottest advocacy tips!
Court Etiquette
For a law clerk or freshly-admitted solicitor, having to appear in Court can be incredibly daunting. Many are thrown in the deep end without much guidance as to Court etiquette or procedure, which is often easily spotted by the bench.
The good news is that learning Court etiquette doesn’t require a law degree, and you can quickly get across what is expected by the bench in terms of how you should conduct yourself. Here are some quick-fire tips from His Honour on the point of etiquette:
- Pay attention to visual cues and speak at a pace that doesn’t overwhelm the Magistrate. If you are announcing your appearance, watch the Magistrate to see if they are ready to hear your name, then the firm you’re appearing for. If you have a complicated name, the Magistrate might not be able to absorb that along with your initials and firm if you say it quickly, so be mindful of your pace.
- Listen carefully to what the Magistrate is asking you, and don’t talk over the top of them.
- Don’t fiddle or fidget – it can be very distracting – and don’t click your pen. That’s a pet hate for a few Magistrates!
- Be polite to your opponent and listen to what they are saying too.
- Don’t presuppose an outcome. Provide the Magistrate with options as to how to proceed, and submit on which option you prefer.
- Don’t read from scripts.
- Be confident enough to admit what you don’t know, while still offering a solution.
- If you finish a matter, wait for the next matter to be called, unless the Magistrate says you’re excused.
- Defer to seniority, but if you’re a law clerk and really need to be somewhere else, you can let the DPP or the police know, and the Magistrate might allow you to interpose your matter.
- Apologise where you’ve made a mistake. If you made a clear error, and you know you made a clear error, you should apologise. Or if you need to correct yourself, it’s more than appropriate to say, “I didn’t want to mislead Your Honour, so I should correct something I said earlier.”
Becoming familiar with how a Court operates takes time, and His Honour says the best way to learn is to listen and observe.
The silver lining of being last in the line of seniority is that you get to spend hours watching the proceedings… noticing how the Magistrate hears a matter, what kind of questions they ask, and how they react to submissions made from the bar table.
What also comes as a result of observing the proceedings is identifying which practitioners are strong advocates, and His Honour encourages clerks and newly-admitted practitioners to introduce themselves and ask for guidance.
Callovers
A callover is where a Court hears numerous matters of a certain kind in one day, with a view to obtaining an update on their progress. There are numerous callovers in the Brisbane Magistrates Court: the committal callover, summary callover, traffic callover, sexual assault offence callover, and DNA callover, to name a few. Each callover has its own purpose, and His Honour says it is essential for clerks and practitioners to understand what that purpose is before appearing.
Usually, the Magistrates presiding in the callover is under pressure to hear close to 100 matters in a day. For this reason, His Honour says efficiency is the most important thing to bear in mind when appearing in a callover.
For the prickly matters that have been frequent fliers in the callovers, His Honour says it’s important to know the history of those matters and succinctly indicate to the Court that it has some history.
Perhaps the most daunting thing for those new to appearing in the courtroom is the dreaded questions from the bench, but His Honour says they’re not to be feared, and there are ways to prepare for them.
When you are appearing on a matter where another solicitor at your firm has carriage, the reality is that you won’t know everything there is to know about the matter. Sometimes the bench will ask questions you don’t know the answer to, and if you’re a law clerk, they might request that your principal appear.His Honour emphasised that you are only as good as your instructions, and sometimes in order for a Magistrate to do their job, they need information directly from the solicitor with carriage. Being asked to send your principal over to appear doesn’t mean you’ve done a bad job, it just means the Magistrate has questions that you can’t answer.
In a nutshell, if you are courteous, observe what is occurring in the courtroom, and prepare to the best of your ability, you will be successful appearing in the callovers. Lastly, making an effort to understand the ‘why’ behind your instructions will only further your confidence and build your knowledge about the matter, so don’t be afraid to ask questions when you have them!Next time, His Honour will share his advice for solicitors appearing in sentences and bail applications, so keep an eye out for Part Two!