Episode 3 Barristers

For almost 100 years, our justice system has been a hidden world.

Cameras are banned in courts here.

Much of the work goes unreported.

Historically, our knowledge of the law has been based on TV dramas,

artist's impressions and newspaper headlines.

But now, for the first time,

one legal institution has allowed the cameras in.

This is the world of the barristers.

The public want to know what we do.

They are entitled to know what we do.

And we feel we have a responsibility and duty to therefore inform

the public of what it is we actually do as part

of the administration of justice.

For 15 months, we followed barristers,

gaining an insight into our legal system

and the range of problems faced in every area of life.

The money's gone.

The money's gone for a reason.

The reason is A, B, C.

For buyers like ourselves,

we're going to have to pay for this for the rest of our working lives

and we've nothing to show for it.

Come November, it will be two years.

They told us to do it.

It happened while I was at work, so I thought it was straightforward.

But it didn't work out that way.

With hundreds of barristers and thousands of cases,

this is a snapshot of their work.

When you have a legal problem,

a solicitor is the first person you turn to.

74 people have lost their savings

and pension funds buying Italian property.

Yeah. I suppose all Land Registry are going to be concerned with

is what the boundaries are.

Whether we're transferring a palace or a bog is of no

concern of theirs, I suppose.

Sure thing. That's brilliant, Judy. OK.

Speak to you. Cheers. Bye-bye.

Simon Chambers is their lawyer.

WOMAN SPEAKS OVER TANNOY

'Well, around 2007, a number of people from Northern Ireland

'decided that they wanted to purchase a second property'

and they were drawn towards Calabria,

which is in the toe of Italy.

This is my wire, I suppose, as to what needs to be done...

'One of the developments in question was never built at all.

'Construction never commenced.'

Well it's just, I suppose,

has something ready at sight that I can work on.

As we've got deeper and deeper into this case over the years,

it's becoming increasingly apparent that some of the most basic

checks and balances were never carried out by these individuals.

Solicitors leaving our clients with significant losses across the board.

PHONE RINGS

HE MUMBLES

Oh, right.

'I suppose it's taken up half of my professional life for the last

'four years. And, from my perspective,

'there's no guarantee of a successful outcome.

'The saying is, "Litigation is not for widows or orphans."

'Anything can happen on the day in court.'

..on Monday morning.

'The facts are often stranger than fiction in this action,'

and that's part of the beauty of this job.

Every day seems to throw up something different.

Lawyers use expert witnesses to back up their legal arguments.

Simon's brought a team in from London.

Well, it would be good to finally meet the guys.

I've spoken to them a lot on the phone,

but it's not until you meet somebody that you really get a proper handle

on where they perceive the strengths and weaknesses of the case are.

We also get an idea of how these individuals will

present as witnesses

because visual impact is very important in court.

Frank O'Donoghue is the senior barrister leading

the team in an uphill battle.

The money's gone.

The money's gone for a reason.

The reason is A, B, C.

'Well, commercial cases in the high court are done very

'substantially on paper.

'That is that, where you have an expert giving his evidence.'

The expert evidence is in report form,

and then will be supplemented by oral evidence.

Well, he has to... I think it should be in the report,

but I think the emphasis of the report...

'I think barristers are like icebergs.

'The dressing up, the wearing of the wig and the gown,'

and the court presentation is the tip of the iceberg,

but the real meat of the case is not seen by the public at all.

The better you prepare the case

and the more opportunity you're given to prepare the case...

the better your performance will be in court.

So, preparation is...

Is everything.

Last year, around 91,000 cases went through our courts.

They range in everything from serious crime to personal injuries

to the more unexpected.

In Omar, barrister Gary McHugh is representing Tony,

who was attacked by a bull.

I've spoken with the barristers now for the other party, Mr Kelly,

and they've confirmed that they're not making any offer

outside of court in settlement of this case.

There is a dispute, they say,

about what happened.

There's a dispute about who owns the bull and why you were there,

because nobody is accepting that you were there at their request.

And nobody is saying that you were...

employed by them in that sense.

So you'll go into the witness box and we'll give your evidence.

-Are you happy enough with that?

-Yeah.

-OK. We'll go upstairs now.

Will you bring Mr McHugh up and I'll have a quick word with him outside?

Gary's client had been in the pub one day

when he was asked to help move a bull from a field.

He thought he would get a pint in return.

Unfortunately, he was attacked by the bull.

He spent four days in hospital.

-INDISTINCT SPEECH

-I couldn't move.

It just headed for me and picked me up into the air.

I seen stars. I thought I was dead.

I thought I was dead, I'll be honest with you.

It was starting to kick at me.

I think it was just pure fear then.

Fear of death. I just got up and run.

They pulled me out through the gate at the side of the field,

so they did, you know.

I was black and blue from my knee up to about my belly button.

I was black, blue, purple...

for, I would say, six weeks before it faded away at all.

It's the barrister's job to cut through the story

and apply the law to the facts.

The case ultimately comes down to who is to blame.

As it stands, I think the judge has a fair flavour of it.

Now there are legal issues in this case about who was

responsible for what.

The first defendant is saying that...

at the time, he wasn't responsible for the field,

and there might be a legal argument about that.

And the only issue the judge will ultimately have to decide is whether

or not it was safe for you to have been sent into this field at all.

It's a county court, so there's no jury.

A judge listens to the witnesses and decided the outcome.

All right, Tony, did you hear that judgment in the end?

The judge made an analysis of the various witnesses in the case and,

again, he said, in terms of your evidence,

and in terms of the evidence of your witness,

that he believed everything that you said.

Well, I presume I've won if that's the case.

The judge held that the first and the fourth defendants were

responsible for the control of the operations in the field that day,

and he awarded you damages of £6,000

and all your costs are paid for by the insurance companies.

That figure... That figure will come directly to you.

Thank you for... You done brilliant work.

You're the best barrister I ever seen.

-Not at all. OK.

-Thank you.

-I'll see you again.

But this wasn't to be the end of Tony's case.

In the county court, there's an automatic right of appeal

and that's what the insurers do.

The Italian property case is due in court

and Simon's briefing his clients.

..is putting together an information pack for you

all in terms of what's going to be coming up in court.

What I've produced is a court information sheet.

It's about four pages, just talking about what is expected of you.

Were the facilities or where the toilets are, the cafe,

parking, everything like that.

So, it saves me having to relay that all to you individually.

Simon has 74 clients to look after.

One of them is Roisin Adams.

She bought two apartments in the hope

she could make money to fund her children's education.

Well, we invested in the properties initially

because they were going to be an investment for our kids' future.

The first lot of months, everything seemed to go smoothly.

But it was the following year, 2008, during the summer

that the development came to a halt.

There was problems with the planning permission.

This is the promotional video selling the Italian dream.

Sensibly, and quite rightly,

Roisin used an international lawyer to handle the purchase.

But now she's suing him for professional negligence

and breach of contract,

hoping his insurers AIG will pay up.

That's the contract for the apartment Jewel of the Sea.

It's when you look through the contract now with hindsight,

you realise that the contract was flawed, even at the time.

But you expect that, when you employ a professional solicitor

and pay him a fee to carry out work on your behalf, that he's actually

acting with your best interests at heart.

And we later discovered that it wasn't the case.

There's the brochure.

"Living the dream on the Southern Italian Riviera." And, really,

the dream has just turned into a nightmare for the entire family.

It's just very hard to accept there's a chance that you've

lost your money and you're going to be paying that money

back for the rest of your working life.

Regardless of the outcome...

we, as a family, have to draw a line in the sand and move on.

It's far from straightforward.

The Anglo-Italian lawyer denies negligence.

And even if Frank and the team are successful,

there is no guarantee that the clients will get any money back.

Guy is at the county court in Belfast.

He suffered chemical burns to his feet after an incident at work.

His solicitor Ursula is preparing him

for the witness box as there's been no settlement.

What I want to do is I just want to tell you what it's like in here, OK?

Now I've explained to you before.

We're here now, all right?

If I can just show you...

..the way the courtroom is set out here.

The witness box is here.

OK? At an angle.

It's a bit bizarre in that you have to address

all your comments to the judge.

That's very difficult to do when the questions are being

put to you by your barrister from behind you.

So if you can just keep yourself in that position,

eye contact with the judge.

Listen to what the barrister is asking you...

and then answer up to the judge.

-Good morning.

-Good morning. How are you?

-Very well.

-Good.

His barrister Michael McCrae is handling the negotiations

and the court case.

Some people would make excellent witnesses,

although they don't think so.

And some people will think they're going to be great witnesses

and they're terrible.

Ursula, did we ever get any decent photographs...?

'The judge has only got a short period of time to make

'an assessment.'

Judges are human like everybody else.

They may take a like to somebody or a dislike to somebody,

so... And anything could happen.

The other side's barristers look at Guy's feet.

The lawyers on the other side,

so they can see what residual marks or scarring there were.

It means they're interested in looking at that,

which means that they're interested, obviously,

in some form of discussion.

'It's really a team effort, frankly, now.

'Simply I bring the decision to the table and then we discuss it,

'and then we decide what we're going to do as a team.'

CHATTER

It's maybe worse, sitting waiting and waiting and waiting.

You're sitting feeling like you've done something wrong.

It's... It's weird.

It's a weird feeling.

I can't explain it. It's just weird.

Come November, that will be two years.

I mean... When it happened, I thought, "Just sort it out."

They told us to do it, it happened while I was at work,

so I thought it was straightforward.

But it didn't work out that way.

OK, Mr Nelson, some good news.

The position is that eventually your opponents have agreed

with each other and with us to resolve this case

without going to court, OK?

And eventually they've agreed to pay a sum of money which

we think is appropriate.

-I know that you'd be happy if they were to pay that.

-Great.

That will resolve your case.

-They are going to do that, so that is your case settled.

-Great.

So that's the end of the case and, hopefully, you can

enjoy the rest of the day.

-Thanks very much.

-You're very, very welcome.

-Good luck. Very nice meeting you.

-Cheerio.

The amount is confidential as it was settled out of court,

but the figure isn't plucked out of thin air.

They lawyer's green book lists the value of every injury.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

The Italian property case is due at the High Court

and senior barrister Frank O'Donoghue is preparing for it.

PHONE RINGS

This case is now listed for the 18th of February.

We act on behalf of 74 plaintiffs,

and the court has directed us to ensure that affidavits in

respect of each of those plaintiffs is filed by the 11th of January.

That's the job of a solicitor and Simon, who is here,

has been working through his office to prepare those affidavits,

and that process in ongoing.

Do I feel under pressure in relation to this case? Yes, I do.

Because you can see from the volume of documentation that there's

an awful lot to read,

an awful lot still to extract so that it becomes a manageable

process for the court by the 18th of February.

The day before the hearing.

Like many cases, there's always new information coming to

light as the lawyers dig deeper into the files.

A query has been raised over

whether a new expert witness can be impartial.

Well, there's been some quite significant

and serious developments.

An expert's architect report was served on us,

as well as the supplementary report, last week. And...

It's purported to be independent.

If the expert is an employee or an associate of the defendant,

it could raise a question mark over her independence.

And she's told the lawyers that she cannot attend the Belfast court

because of a fear of flying.

Thank you.

On Saturday evening, junior council decided to conduct a cursory

internet search on this expert architect,

and it turns out that she's an employee of the defendants,

which came as rather a surprise to all of us.

'Further that she works in both the California office

'and the Palermo office,

'so quite how she travels between California and Palermo

'without flying is beyond us.'

But the other side argues that its witness is impartial.

The issue is never resolved, as the case takes another turn

when it finally makes it to court.

In the run-up to the hearing,

Frank's team is under pressure to use every hour to cover all angles.

The preparation is just absolutely everything.

There's an enormous amount of documents in this case that

have to be considered and cross referenced.

We have to consult with our clients.

We have to consult with our experts and our witnesses.

You're applying structure.

You're focusing the issues for the court and you're trying to do so

with the purpose of ensuring that justice is achieved for the parties,

but also ensuring that court time is used efficiently and appropriately.

And that's why I'm sitting here on a Sunday afternoon.

I don't know that enjoyment is necessarily the phrase.

I think you just regard it as an essential aspect of your work.

The enjoyment comes more in the form of a satisfaction that you have,

in fact, done the work and...

So that when you come to stand on your feet in court and say,

"My Lord, I appear on behalf of the plaintiff,"

that in fact you know why you are appearing on behalf of the plaintiff,

you know the points that you are trying to make to him,

and you know how to respond to the points as they arise

when they are confronted by the court...

in an adversarial context.

What I want to do is two things.

First of all, I want to go through...

Most think of the law in terms of winning and losing.

It can be more subtle than that.

This case is about getting the clients' money back.

The international lawyer is insured,

but there may be a limit to the amount the policy will pay out.

-..for which he contends.

-Yeah.

And then, secondly, once we've done that, just to talk generally about

how we give our evidence.

My instruction is to represent my clients to win the case in court.

To just let you take your time to go through the report slowly.

If there was some form of meaningful negotiation,

where the other side were to come along in a situation

such as this and say, effectively,

"Look, we'll not be able to pay you 100p in the pound,

"but we'll pay you 60p in the pound,

"and we'll pay it now or within four or five weeks."

Then obviously we have to take that on board.

We have to go and speak to our clients.

It may be that, in that type of situation,

you would have to recommend it even though you had a perfectly good case,

which you would win 100% in court,

but would actually be worth less to your client.

The harshness, if you like,

of the situation as far as we are concerned is this.

If we aren't to have any form of meaningful negotiation,

we've just got to run the case and seek

and hope the judgment can be enforced.

And that the client will get the money back.

Next week, we go onto the next case...

and the client is left with the outcome. Such as it is.

That may sound uncharitable or harsh or cold - it's not meant to be.

It's just the nature of our work.

While there's a case to fight, Frank and the team plough on.

And there's an added pressure.

There's no legal aid in this case so, if there's no result,

everyone is out of pocket.

In the bull attack case,

the appeal by the insurance company is due to be heard,

but there's a problem.

A key witness is ill, so solicitor Connor is going to get a statement.

We received a phone call from Mr Kelly, advising that he had become

aware that his witness in the case, Mr McHugh, had taken a heart attack.

He's been told by a doctor that he's not fit to attend

at Belfast High Court to give evidence.

Therefore, what I propose to do today is to call out to his house

and take a written statement from him.

Witness non-availability occurs all the time.

But I suppose, in this particular case,

it has already been adjourned once.

And it may be that a judge may not grant an adjournment

if we make an adjournment application the second time.

Upon speaking with Gary McHugh, the barrister,

we proposed to take the statement in the hope that it can be

introduced under the civil evidence order.

Whilst that's not ideal,

it's better than having to run a case without the witness.

The appeal is a rerun of the original hearing,

but now it's in front of a high court judge.

There should only be two or three witnesses today, and because we have

already had a run at it in the County Court,

it shouldn't be as long as it took the first day.

The judge will know we were successful at the County Court,

but it's a compete rehearing, and the judge will form his view

on the basis of the evidence as it's presented and considered today.

Once again, Tony has to get into the witness box and give evidence.

After everything he's been through, it's a nerve-racking experience.

Well, the judge today ruled as the County Court had ruled,

that the owner of the field owed a duty of care to Mr Kelly,

who was visiting the field, and that duty of care extended

to ensure that when Mr Kelly was in his field,

Mr Kelly was reasonably safe,

and the judge's language today said that Mr Kelly

being in the field with a bull in those circumstances was

an accident waiting to happen, so the damages have been confirmed,

as far as you're concerned, at £6,000.

So you've won your case again.

Same issues, same sort of circumstances

and the judge made the ruling in our favour, so I'm delighted for you.

And because Tony's won, the insurance company pays

all the court costs, so there's no legal aid bill.

For six years,

Roisin has been paying for two properties that don't exist.

All she wants is for her nightmare to stop.

Before Christmas, I was really feeling the pressure.

But at the end of the day, to continue on,

you have to go into work and keep the house going,

but really, to be honest, it's in the back of your head all the time.

I think it will be nice to see a lot of other buyers there

that morning knowing that these people have actually experienced

the same as us over this last six years.

For me, it's been a long time coming, so when I finally see it,

happening in court, I think it will just be unbelievable, you know,

that it's got to that stage.

It's their barrister Frank who carries

the burden of their hopes and fears.

It's about 9.15am now.

I have to see my clients between 9.30 and 9.45am

down in the Great Hall, in the High Court,

just to have a final few words.

I'll get ready for the case. The case will start about 10.30, 10.45am.

I'm actually very anxious about this case this morning.

No matter how prepared you are,

you're always anxious before it gets up and running.

It's like playing a game of sport, where you got the anxiety levels

high before you go in, but as soon as the whistle blows

and the game starts, you probably settle into it a lot better.

There are many very, very experienced barristers in this jurisdiction,

and if you spoke to each and every one of them, they will tell you

that they have high levels of anxiety going into the case.

It's a very, very stressful job.

Barristers may be professionally detached,

but there's no escaping the weight of the responsibility they carry.

I think it's brilliant that we've actually made it

to the actual court and there will be a resolution.

We will be able to draw a line under it,

but there's also going to have to be a lot of compromise.

I understand, fully appreciate the work and effort that has been

put into this case, and Simon and the legal team, the barristers,

people need to be paid, people have their own bills to be paid.

But for buyers like ourselves,

we're going to have to pay for this for the rest of our working lives.

And we've nothing to show for it. So that part bothers me.

But at the same time, we have to accept it and move on,

otherwise it will just destroy the rest of our lives.

Next time on Barristers...

Because you're dealing with the death of children,

it's very, very emotional.

What we watched that day, how Rachel was dying in front of our eyes,

I had promised that I would get justice for her.

I'm relieved. It's not everything we wanted,

but it's what I believe represents the best and most reasonable

deal that we're ever likely to get under the circumstances.