As many of you may know, I am the reporter whom is responsible for covering the docket and criminal court for the Barrhead Leader.
Time and again I have sat through entire days at the courthouse and I have listened to cases be adjourned — sometimes these are due to credible reasons such as disclosure requests or changes of defence representation, but other times there is no reason except for a paltry excuse.
Toothaches, lost disclosure, plain ignorance; the list could go on and on.
I’ve debated long and hard about how to go about addressing this issue, mostly because I don’t want to come under fire for appearing heartless in the eyes of my readership base, but I feel like something has to be said here.
When somebody is sick or they can’t get in touch with their lawyer, that is one thing, but to show up and tell duty counsel you have a toothache in order to be excused, when it is your seventh appearance — whether or not it is something minor or major — to me that is just plain ridiculous and a bit embarrassing.
If you are going to use an excuse, at least make it something humorous.
I understand, and acknowledge, circumstances are fluid and that they change.
Sometimes people are not always able to uphold their end of an agreed-upon meeting or court appearance.
I get it.
I’m reasonably sure every single one of us has had a toothache at one time or another however.
They can be painful, certainly, but are they a credible reason why a person shouldn’t take a matter scheduled for court seriously? Personally, I’ve had plenty of toothaches and sometimes they hurt like crazy, but I’ve also had a job to do and I’ve soldiered on in spite of them.
Maybe my tolerance is higher than somebody else’s, I don’t know.
If a person is innocent, as everybody is until proven otherwise, they have a duty to appear when summoned, or subpoenaed.
When they don’t, they take up valuable time that could have been used by someone else and their own case gets pushed to another date.
I’m not saying every excuse is ridiculous, but if this person felt well enough to go to court in person to tell duty counsel about their toothache, in my opinion, maybe they should have stayed long enough to have their court-related issue dealt with.
Maybe it is time for the judicial system to implement some sort of three-strikes-and-you’re-guilty mechanism to dissuade people from taking advantage of the current process.
