Green Grads Archives: Tuesday Transcript
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20 January 2009
Tuesday Transcript: John Mortimer (1923-2009)
In an issue of the Australian Law Journal a few years ago ((2004) 78 ALJ 295 at 303), Justice Young passed on a story submitted by a reader, about an English judge. His Honour explained that the contribution
… depends on English accents in which the |æ| and |Λ| of Received Pronunciation have pulled in the [...]
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13 January 2009
Tuesday Transcript: What’s that smell?
A new year, and a fresh start — and hopefully breathing fresh air, unlike Judge Staffier-Holtz in Massachusetts last year:
There was a juror seated in seat No. 10, juror 6-5 … who I’d made inquiry of earlier. And I just want the record to reflect, I guess, to be blunt, [the juror], for whatever reason, [...]
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31 December 2008
Tuesday Wednesday Transcript: “Do me a favor, wear it to court”
With the office closed for the holiday period, I wasn’t planning to post a Tuesday Transcript instalment this week, but this entry in Above the Law’s 2008 big-law gossip retrospective was too good to pass up:
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16 December 2008
Tuesday Transcript: Tell us what you really think
Some judges keep a stern poker face, allowing counsel to meander through hopeless arguments without giving a hint of their disapproval. WA’s Justice Christine Wheeler is not one of those judges:
WHEELER JA: Can I say my first reaction in relation to proposed ground 3 … is that it is doomed, doomed, doomed. Now I don’t [...]
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9 December 2008
Tuesday Transcript: Cut Your Losses
You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
MR GARLING: Your Honours, I took the Court to the regulation. … Why am I concentrating on that, your Honours?
HEYDON J: Because you have no other arguable point perhaps.
MR GARLING: I am sorry?
HEYDON J: Because you have no other arguable point.
MR GARLING: Your Honour [...]
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2 December 2008
Tuesday Transcript: That sinking feeling
Sometimes judicial wit leaves lawyers floundering, as counsel in a recent Victorian trial discovered:
COUNSEL: That’s the only cross-examination I have, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: Reminds me of the magician and his parrot on the Titanic, Mr Counsel.
COUNSEL: I don’t understand, I am afraid, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: The Titanic went down, the parrot struggled to the raft [...]
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18 November 2008
Tuesday Transcript: Hats off in court, please
This week’s transcript comes from a circuit trial before one of Australia’s intermediate courts. After several weeks of evidence, a thought occurred to the self-represented accused:
ACCUSED: Your Honour, just a question regarding protocol[:] do I need a hat like that one?
HER HONOUR: I beg your pardon?
ACCUSED: Do I need one of those wigs?
HER HONOUR: No, [...]
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11 November 2008
Tuesday Transcript: High Court TV reviews
For this, the inaugural instalment of Tuesday Transcript, a reminder that even High Court judges take time away from drafting judgments. In IceTV v Nine Network, counsel for the respondent was explaining how his client would sometimes make late programming changes, after the TV guides had gone to print:
MR BANNON: … But just looking at [...]
