Conferences

In every Crown Court case I hold a conference with Counsel to at least give the Client an opportunity to meet the barrister that will deal with their case at the Crown Court. When I arrange these conferences some Clients choose not to attend, and some do attend - and then there are cases where I even have conferences with just Counsel and myself.

Tonight I met with Counsel for what I would describe as an emergency conference. My Client is accused of a riot and is in custody. He is currently on trial. The Prosecution have served me with 3,500 hours of CCTV footage, but as I am subject to an undertaking I cannot give this CCTV footage to Counsel. Today a witness claims my Client has done something naughty which can only be verified by watching the CCTV. I attend for a conference and we watch CCTV for an hour and a half, and guess what, the witness has not been very truthful. The CCTV shows my Client was not even where the witness said he was!

I had also arranged to hold a normal conference for the Client to attend at, did they attend? No.

At 7pm my working day finished when Counsel took me to the pub for the customary beer that barristers buy solicitors for referring work to them. After a long day that beer tasted good.