75ZT Community

... has a cock-eyed view of the Juciciary in general and Magistrates' Courts specifically.

I've just seen a few minutes of one of the soaps SWMBO watches, Emmerdale, during which a bail hearing is supposed to have taken place.

It might "make good telly" but it really doesn't bear any resemblance to what really happens, starting off with the dip-stick in the public gallery with his hat on, followed by a prosecution application to remand in custody giving so little evidence that if it were in my Court, I'd be asking several pertinent questions of the prosecutor, a defence advocate who ought to be censured by the Law Society (the Solicitor's professional body) for totally ignoring his clients (presumed) instructions and ending up with a Magistrate who laid himself open to an accusation of abuse of process.

OK, I know it is merely fiction but for heaven's sake, they got absolutely nothing right and in doing so, by sheer laziness, perpetuated the hackneyed myths surrounding the Courts' processes.

I am, as you might detect, aghast

The worrying thing is that so many people think that if something is on TV it must be right.