WOOD AND TREESFor those who have followed the Twitter joke case it has finally ended at the High Court with a victory for common sense. It should never have been taken that far. It began two years ago at Doncaster Magistrates` Court and should have been thrown out at that stage. I know not whether the case was heard by a District Judge [MC] or a bench of three J.P.s. As an outside observer it seems to me that our legal processes are becoming increasingly codified and woe betide a tribunal that attempts to get behind the verbiage presented to it. The erudite blogger ObiterJ has a brief history.

A few months ago I was sitting on a breach matter which hinged on the defendant`s claim that he had written permission to miss a supervision appointment. Unfortunately for him in his disorganised life he had been unable to obtain the letter from his mother`s address which he used at the time in question some weeks previously. The probation officer/prosecutor told us that there was absolutely no record of any such letter being sent so our L/A began making enquiries re a trial date. Just to ensure we were all quite clear as to what was in dispute I asked her to confirm that if indeed there were such a letter that had been sent to the defendant would the prosecution be withdrawn. She answered in the affirmative. A brief exchange between the bench and the defendant`s lawyer confirmed his position about which he was quite adamant. She agreed that without the letter he would admit the breach. The case was adjourned for a week for the letter to be produced.

Sometimes sight of the tree is obscured by the wood.