While I was a prosecutor at the Director of Public Prosecution's office, I received a few traffic tickets, but the traffic ticket that changed my life was one I received from a police constable who had only recently graduated from training school. I was determined to dispute the charge, but my research revealed I had no case, so I just had to attend court, plead guilty, and pay the fine.
Sitting in court as a defendant was a very sobering experience. For a change, I was able to sit in court as an observer--I mean defendant--and what I observed changed the way I did my work thereafter.
Lesson 1 - I do not know everything
I always knew, and accepted, that I do not know everything, but I clearly needed this reminder. It is easy to assume that you know everything in your area of practice, especially after you have had reason to go through a piece of legislation several times. I had been through the Road Traffic Act so many times, and I had never come across a section related to the charge, but as luck would have it, I knew that one prosecutor who knew of the existence of the authority to support the charge, so I had to concede.
Lesson 2 - Court is scary!
Although I was sitting in counsel's bench while waiting for my attorney to arrive, I was still a defendant, a lawbreaker ... and a guilty one too. Knowing the worst sentence possible was a fine gave me very little comfort in that moment! I had withdrawn more than enough money to pay the fine just to be safe, but as I observed the proceedings, I felt myself growing a little nervous. When my matter was called, I stood where all the other defendants stood and entered my plea.
The judge's courtroom demeanour was quite intimidating from the position of a ... guilty defendant. I felt quite cute when the judge asked my attorney, "Why was she sitting in counsel's bench when she is a defendant?" I was almost certain the judge would have let me be the only defendant to stand in the dock that morning just for the heck of it. For the first time, I truly appreciated how some members of the public felt.
Lesson 3 - The attitude of the bench trickles down
Generally speaking, court officers, and by that I mean, prosecutors, police officers, and court staff, tend to take their cue from the bench. If the judge is discourteous and impatient towards the public, the odds are that the prosecutor and police officers will be discourteous and impatient with the public as well.
The judge's impatience pressured the court sergeant, who then pressured the police officer responsible for calling names, who then pressured the public; even my "fellow defendants" seemed to grow impatient with the people who didn't run into court when their name was called, but the prosecutor in court that morning was unaffected. Whereas everyone else forgot to refer to the men and women as "Mr. or Miss So and So," she did not. I recalled several instances in which I,too, was guilty of passing on the pressure from the judge to the police and the public. It really did not look good from the observer's seat at all.
Lesson 4 - We waste people's time and sometimes ruin their lives
Everybody complains about this all the time, but the truth is that all court users contribute to the time wasting, and no particular group is exclusively responsible for it. There are, however, ways we can reduce the time wasting.
It seems difficult for the public to understand, but a court can only try one case at a time. A trial may span several days, and all other cases on the trial list will have to be postponed. For those persons whose cases are postponed, court is a waste of their time, but that is not the kind of "time wasting" I am referring to.
That morning in Traffic Court as I walked back to my car, relieved it was over and my legs were still dry, I overheard persons complaining bitterly about the number of times they had shown up for court, the police officers had never attended, there was no police statement on file, and the court kept postponing the cases for the police to show up with their statements.
The complaint that caught my attention was that of a decently attired man who said he thought today would be the day they fired him because he had taken so much time from work to attend court and had received several warnings.
When you are a judge, lawyer, or police officer assigned to a court, being in court is our job. We show up, as we are required to. We are not at risk of being fired as long as we are in court doing our work, but the witnesses and defendants (guilty or innocent) have jobs to report to. We all know the judge has the power to order a warrant for the arrest of any person who fails to show up for court. If a defendant dares to choose his jobs over the court, the judge can show him who the real boss is.
It is very easy for judges and prosecutors to take it for granted that the public has to just "suck it up and wait it out" or face being locked up. I have singled out judges and prosecutors because defence counsel and the police are more likely to hear these kinds of concerns from the defendants and the witnesses than judges and prosecutors are. It is not because prosecutors are heartless persecutors who do not care about people, or judges are sadistic and love to inflict punishment any way they can. I realised that day that I was simply too busy reading piles of cases; doing research; preparing indictments; preparing lists for judges, lists for the police, and notices for lawyers; conducting trials and re-reading notes of evidence to give it any real thought. I suspect that is what happens to most judges and prosecutors. We are all in our own heads thinking about the things we need to do to get our jobs done. Had I not been
an observer a defendant at court on that day, I doubt I would ever consider what it must be like for the public.
Delays in our courts have far-reaching consequences for both accused persons and witnesses. Wrongly accused persons can end up losing their entire lives if we are not careful.
Approximately two years after sitting in that courtroom, I watched my own relative's life unravel because of a criminal charge, which was subsequently dismissed about four or five years later. After being charged, she could not pay her rent, and she had worn out her welcome at her friend’s home. The only place available for her to live was three parishes away from the court. The court refused to change her reporting conditions to a police station closer to the new address or reduce the number of days for her to report. For almost a year she had to depend on relatives to pay for transportation across three parish boundaries to report to the police station in the parish in which she was charged. She could not get a job for the entire time because of the nature of the charge against her. Imagine moving from being an independent person to depending on handouts to buy basic items such as feminine hygiene products. It scares me to think how many other people have suffered a similar fate and how I may have contributed to their demise.
Lesson 5 - I needed to change
I became a prosecutor because justice and fairness are my things. Before sitting in that Traffic Court, I was satisfied with who I was as a prosecutor. But that day, I realised I needed to change. I needed to do better. Being a good prosecutor is not only about knowing the law. It definitely is not about securing convictions. It is about playing your role in the administration of justice ethically, competently, compassionately, and, most importantly, humanely.
What did I do differently?
1. I stopped taking it for granted that everyone was as comfortable in the courtroom as I was.
2. I made a conscious decision never to participate in the pressure dynamic in court. If the judge was upset, I would pretend not to notice. I just told myself “I am not the one who pissed in his/her cornflakes!" Just the imagery alone made me smile.
3. I tried my best to be more patient and accommodating towards the public. I am not naturally patient when foolishness is taking place, but I tried.
4. I stopped setting mention dates for two weeks away for accused persons who were on bail. Instead, I gave them dates one month away. My main reason for doing this was to reduce the number of court dates these accused persons had in a one-month period.
5. I decided to "motivate" the police to provide the prosecution with all the outstanding reports and statements by the next court date. Every Friday after the Mention Court, I prepared a letter to the Commissioner of Police, which I copied to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The letter had a detailed table of all the cases that were dealt with in court, the names of the absent investigating officers, the list of documents I needed to complete the file, the next court date, and a request for the documents to be submitted on or before the next court date. It seems the then Commissioner was quite persuasive, as more investigating officers showed up for court with the documents needed to complete the files.
We are all at various stages of the legal journey, and our experiences practising law vary. I write not to cast judgment on anyone. I write to encourage my colleagues to occasionally stop and observe their corner of the justice system; identify your role, if any, in its inefficiency or shortcomings; and do what you can to improve your corner. We all have something more than criticisms to contribute to the enhancement of the system.
Awesome sauce,
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