This Friday's Friday Post . . . .

Happy Friday my Criminal Justice Colleagues.

I hope that this week has been kind to you and that you have sailed through unscathed, or at least the scathes (!?) have been minimal.

I have had an odd week, not as much Court time as usual and have been catching up on conferences and prep work and all of the bits and bobs that need doing which despite my misgivings in relation to the officey side of my job has actually been rather nice.

I have been able to get through the jobs that have been waiting, got a whole lot of my to-do list nuked and am feeling a whole lot calmer as a result.

(although it must be said that I am drafting a letter to CERN about the possibility of research into the properties of to-do lists which cause any 'done' item to spawn ten new 'to-do's)

My days in Court this week did, happily show me some examples of people in our odd little system being really nice to each other for no other reason than they are colleagues and were being nice to each other.

People shared jokes, offered help to each other, took on tasks for others just to make life a little bit easier for a colleague, covered hearings, and bought hot beverages.

I do like being part of a community that cares about it's members and is a relatively friendly microcosm of society but seemingly the nicer bits, despite the type of case that we all deal with day in day out.

I also observed and was a part of another incident worthy of scientific research. A young but very able member of the local Junior Bar asked a question of a number of other advocates of varying experience.

The question was a procedural/ethical one and provided considerable evidence for the hypothesis that asking a room of lawyers the same question will provide an infinite number of subtly different answers, each provided with great authority, gravity and in some cases some rubbing of chins.

I do hope that the correct answer was eventually obtained.

While the advocate in question probably found this frustrating, if well meant. It demonstrated at least two things. That help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it (ok ok Court, not Hogwarts but I couldn't resist). Also there is often more than a single answer and even when there isn't there are often blurred lines.

It was nice that so many people were prepared to help but did highlight the complexity of all situations that we face day to day. Every situation is different, slightly and subtly, but different. It can sometimes leave us frustrated, confused, annoyed and a little lost.

Happily there are always going to be people around who have been in a very similar situation and can offer the benefit of their experience.

All of this put me in mind of a half remembered lyric from 'Everybody's free to wear sunscreen' about advice and how to deal with it and that it was well meant. Turns out I totally misremembered the quote and ended up very much down a rabbit hole of 90's music lyrics and 90 music in general.

That is where this week leaves me, re-living the music of my formative years and realizing that I have been singing many of those song lyrics very wrong!

Next week we go again, working through the various problems and puzzles that our work throws up. If you get stuck know that there are lots of people around you who will help many of them will have had similar questions or faced similar conundrums and will be happy to help you through it.

Asking for help is never a bad thing. It is unlikely to make a situation worse and can allow you to learn and can often allow others to feel useful and pass on hard won experience.

Have a great weekend folks, rest, relax re-charge and get ready for next week, lets smash next week, together.

I'm off to trawl through spotify and my box of CDs.

Lots of Love

Damian