Episode 4 Barristers

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

Cameras are banned in courts here, much of the work is unreported.

Historically, our knowledge has been based on TV dramas,

artist impressions and newspaper headlines.

But 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 as they worked,

gaining an insight into our legal system

and the problems faced in every area of life.

Because you're dealing with the death of children,

it's very, very emotional.

What we watched that day,

of how Raychel was dying in front of our eyes.

I promised that I would get justice for her.

With hundreds of barristers and thousands of cases,

this is a snapshot of their work behind the scenes.

Stephen Quinn is a barrister specialising in personal injury

and medical negligence.

He works for the insurance companies and the people making the claims.

When I became a QC, I did do more criminal law.

I ended up specialising in civil litigation, what they call

Queen's Bench law, and that would be to do with injuries to people.

Before we finish today, I want to take you out and you can listen to his shoulder popping.

'You've also got contract law that comes into that, where

'there's breach of contract between someone who sells a car, for example.

'It seems to suit my personality,'

in that I mostly worked for insurance companies

when I was doing this sort of stuff,

so it was catching out the chancer, really.

'It's interesting picking up something different every week.'

You could be in a case that lasts a week, you could be in a case,

as I am at the moment, that is going to last over a year.

At the moment I am doing a public inquiry called

the Hyponatraemia Inquiry.

All of these files here are to do with the children who died

due to hyponatraemia in various sites in Northern Ireland -

the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Altnagelvin, the Erne Hospital.

I represent several children in the inquiry.

I have to read all of the expert reports

and all of the statements on their behalf.

There are hundreds of witnesses in the various cases, all of which

will be called to give evidence during the term of this inquiry.

The public inquiry is looking at how hospitals handled

the deaths of five children between 1995 and 2003.

The children died after they were given the wrong amount

and type of fluid in drips.

As well as asking how and why,

the inquiry is finding out what changes have been made.

And it may make recommendations.

Stephen represents four of the five families.

For them the inquiry is painful but essential.

We have never been involved in any legal process,

any involvement with barristers, solicitors.

That was a very daunting initial process to start with,

and I know that maybe barristers and solicitors have a bit of a reputation

but I think it is important to establish an understanding

with your team and we've certainly been able to achieve that.

Alan, thanks very much for putting this together for me,

it's very, very useful.

'We've met on regular occasions with them.

'Had updates, meetings and progress,'

and I think that is important to build up the understanding

and give us the reassurance that we know

everyone is aware of the issues and concerns that we have as a family.

Claire was the youngest of my three children.

There was so much joy with a little girl in the family.

Claire was a happy, fun-loving family girl.

Nine-year-old Claire died at the Royal Belfast Hospital

for Sick Children in 1996.

Obviously you're always concerned when a child is unwell.

And you don't take chances with any child.

If the GP recommends a second opinion, you take them

to the hospital, it's precautionary.

That was always our view that Claire would be in

with a 24/48-hour tummy bug

and she would recover within that short length of time.

We had no worries, no concerns, or there was no urgency shown

that Claire was in any danger or in any way critical...

..until it was too late.

There are just over 700 barristers in Northern Ireland.

The majority pay a fee to work out of Belfast's Bar Library.

They also keep their own individual offices

but not in the traditional sense.

Michael Stitt has been a barrister for 40 years.

He's one of a select group - a Queen's Counsel.

This is my study. Like all barristers, we have a study at home.

Most of us find it best to escape from the centre of town,

escape from the law courts, escape from our colleagues,

and come home to somewhere quiet to try to concentrate.

Every barrister has got bookshelves full of books, and when I was called

to the Bar every book was vital.

We didn't read every page, but the answer to many questions

was to be found deep in some law report.

What I really enjoy is to be in court and to be standing on my feet,

to be arguing a case and it's the challenge and the satisfaction of

doing that, usually successfully, but not always,

which makes it worth all the time of preparation

and makes me want to get back up and do the next case.

This is the Old Bar Library

and when I first practised this would have been hiving

with all the members of the Bar sitting at their desks.

We were all in the one room.

Today there are around 700 members of the Bar,

but when I started there were just around 100.

Back in the mid '70s, this was my seat here.

And...my work would arrive...

We had a portering system - through those doors, the porter would come in

with a large old-fashioned trolley and if you were lucky you got some

envelopes on your desk, which meant you might have some work to do.

No barrister is guaranteed any source of income.

We are self-employed and therefore as a junior barrister,

one would glance at the porter coming in one's direction

and hope that he might stop.

And the thud of the thicker-the-better envelope landing on your desk was always reassuring.

40 years on, the challenges facing young barristers

remain the same.

Michael Forde is a Junior Counsel building his practice.

So he has to go where the work is.

Most of my practice is outside of Belfast,

so I'm constantly on the road, normally Magherafelt,

Dungannon, Coleraine, sometimes my home town of Omagh, but especially

amongst young practitioners, you spend your life on the road.

All barristers are self-employed.

You run the business and you have to...

Especially in your first two or three years out, you have to think

further down the road, and hopefully, if you do a good job,

other work will come.

About two thirds of the work I would do would be criminal work.

I have been qualified three years now, and benefit fraud, theft,

dishonesty offences are quite prevalent.

Unfortunately you see quite a lot of assault cases as well.

People would often say if you could remove drink from the equation,

the magistrates courts would probably be empty.

Michael is finishing a case in Londonderry.

His client is being sentenced.

Michael has to present any information to the judge

that may lessen the punishment.

It should be a straightforward job that takes a set amount of time.

Unfortunately my client, who missed his two probation meetings,

also missed his bus this morning, so didn't arrive in court

until after 12 o'clock.

Thankfully the judge was just nearly finished his list, so we were able

to sneak in on time before a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.

Contrary to perhaps public misconception,

lawyers do not drag out cases to try and make more money,

because there is a composite fee, there is one fee.

You don't get paid any additional fees for additional appearances at court.

So if your client doesn't show up for court on a day, you don't get paid for that day.

For the case we dealt with today,

the fee for a barrister is £415, which might sound like a lot

of money, but it's not just turning up on the day of sentencing.

I had to consult with the client in advance of the contest,

which meant travelling to Derry and taking a half day to do that,

taking a half day in the evening to prepare the contest.

On the day of contest, negotiating with the PPS,

and my whole day was spent dealing with that case.

The case was then listed for sentencing and I had to return

to court today, so you maybe have

four, five six appearances and consultations

spread over the course of three or four months, and when you

break it down, that £415 then becomes £70, £80, £90 a day.

And when you start to take out your expenses of £40, £50, £60 a day,

the profit margin actually is not as large as the figure may seem on paper.

Roisin Adams is one of 74 people

who lost money buying Italian property seven years ago.

She was trying to make an investment for her children's education.

But it all went wrong, and Roisin and the other investors

sued their international lawyer for negligence and breach of contract.

In February 2013, just before a court hearing,

liability was admitted for 13 people.

But for Roisin and the remaining clients, liability was denied.

It's just very hard to accept there's a chance 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.

But the talking continued behind the scenes.

And the legal team led by Frank O'Donoghue eventually persuaded

the international lawyer's insurance company, AIG, to make a settlement.

In the early part of this week, on Monday, in fact, of this week,

an offer was received by my solicitor, Mr Chambers,

that we were prepared finally to recommend to our clients,

having regard to all the circumstances.

This case was particularly stressful, given that this was group

litigation, it involved almost 70 plaintiffs in this particular

case, but this has been complex

and difficult litigation, both factually and legally, and while

we haven't been able to recover the entirety of their investment

under the terms of this agreement, this settlement goes some way

towards alleviating the stress and distress that's been caused to them.

The exact terms are confidential under the settlement.

But the clients don't get all their money back.

There was a limit to the funds available through

the insurance policy for professional negligence.

It's defined our lives for the last seven years,

so now that we've finally come to some sort of agreement, at least

we can move on and start to make plans as a family.

We had to pursue that money - it was too much of a financial

loss, but at the end of the day it takes its toll on you mentally and

at times the mental strain becomes even worse

than the financial strain, so you really have to get

the balance right, but, yeah, I do believe

that we did the right thing in pursuing this case

and if anything similar

was to happen again, it wouldn't put me off,

I would, you know, do it again. Yep.

Frank has one last court appearance to tell the judge he's not

needed as a settlement has been reached.

Then it's time for the legal team to pack up and move on.

Well, today was probably the easiest part of the process. It was where

we actually announced the settlement of this litigation to the court.

So today wasn't too bad. It only took five minutes.

All the terms are signed, and that concludes the litigation,

so the court has been informed.

I think, at last count, there

was something like 25 lever arch files on my dining room floor.

So the first thing is to get those off my dining room floor,

so that maybe we can use the room for what it is supposed to be.

Stephen Quinn is on his way to the Hyponatraemia Inquiry in Banbridge.

It's all to do with fluid overload in children.

What happens is that children in hospital can be susceptible to

the wrong type of intravenous fluid and they can go into fluid overload

and this causes brain swelling, which causes death eventually.

Because you're dealing with the death of children, it's very,

very emotional and you can understand what the parents

have gone through for all of these years.

And you can understand why they want to leave no stone

unturned in relation to the evidence in the case, in relation to

what they see is the fault, and who the fault and blame should attach to.

The inquiry is split into sections examining the deaths of each

child and how it was handled.

Marie and Ray Ferguson's nine-year-old daughter

Raychel died at Altnagelvin Hospital in 2001.

'She was very bright, very noisy,

'you would have heard her before you would have seen her.

'Every day, every minute of the day she's in my mind.'

She never leaves, never.

What we watched that day, of how Raychel was dying in front

of our eyes, I'd always promised, you know, before Raychel left

the house for the last time,

I promised that I would get justice for her.

Faced with a daily round trip of four hours,

the Fergusons relocate to Banbridge when the inquiry is sitting.

We don't live in Banbridge, we live in Derry,

but we come up and stay four or five days a week.

The inquiry was good enough to get us a house.

It affects everything really, like,

also affects the weans, cos you're not there. It's not easy for them,

but they understand that this is something we have to do.

The inquiry hears evidence from 78 doctors from four hospital trusts.

Michael Stitt is representing the Altnagelvin Trust,

its senior management and doctors.

He's meeting a doctor who was the clinical director of anaesthetics.

He played a key role in making sure the guidelines on fluid

management in children were improved.

This afternoon I'm meeting Dr Geoffrey Nesbitt,

who is a consultant paediatric anaesthetist.

It's to do with the Hyponatraemia Inquiry,

specifically relating to the death of Raychel Ferguson.

Dr Nesbitt is preparing to give evidence in a few weeks' time.

Good to see you again, Dr Nesbitt. Thanks for coming.

'I represent the Altnagelvin Trust,'

and there's no doubt that there are areas of the care which could be

and have been very closely scrutinised and have been improved.

What I specifically wanted to deal with this afternoon is the numbers.

'I feel, like everyone else in this inquiry, that we know Raychel,

'but I have to try to ignore my natural feelings and just'

concentrate on the issues, and that's what we're doing today,

it's hard numbers and that's what we're trying to get to the bottom of.

If you look at the experience throughout the United Kingdom

of hyponatraemia, it's an extremely limited experience.

This inquiry is important, any death of a child

merits close investigation. When we have a number of children

who appear to have died from the same complication, then one must

look at why and one must look at the system and one must learn from that.

Inquiries are different to court cases - no-one's being accused.

It's a detailed examination searching for truth.

The inquiry's own team of lawyers leads the questioning.

But despite the less combative feeling,

the witness box can still be a daunting and unfamiliar experience.

The inquiry barrister takes each witness through their evidence.

He or she will be reading the inquiry papers

and then they will be preparing a list of questions.

My role is really to protect the families' interests.

And part of that is picking up on bits of the statements that we think

are relevant and to that particular questioning of the witness.

I'm allowed to, as it were, interrupt when I think there is a particular

issue of relevance that hasn't been covered in depth by the inquiry.

To a parent, that is very important to know that sort of information,

so I had to get up and say, "Why was this information never passed over?" etc.

I don't think there is any point in you

and I going over any more of the technical issues.

But can I give you some advice as to perhaps how to best conduct yourself?

Because I know when you're masked up in the operating theatre

it's obviously quite different to being in the inquiry.

I think making eye contact with the chairman is a good thing,

it gives you something to focus on.

Secondly, listen to the questions. I will pop up

if I feel that you are being unfairly questioned or

you are not getting the opportunity to get your answer out

or for some legal reason a question is inappropriate, you know

I will be up there, just as we have done before in this inquiry with other witnesses.

'I quite naturally feel apprehensive.'

I have got a lot of information that I want to share with

the inquiry. I mean, I really do want to help.

You're the expert, you know what happened, and trust me,

you will come across really, really well.

OK, thanks for that. I hope your confidence isn't misplaced.

It's not the audience that I fear,

it's just how I come across as sincere, which I hope to be.

My mantra would be "Do right and fear no man".

And that is what I intend to do.

-Thank you.

-Good luck.

8am Saturday morning.

It's another day on the road for up-and-coming junior barrister,

Michael Forde.

Well, late yesterday evening there were three individuals

charged with drugs-trafficking offences and money-laundering

offences and they have been charged to attend at Ballymena

Magistrates Court this morning, to be formally charged before

the court and then we're going to make an application for bail.

There is a presumption in favour of bail, as everyone is innocent

until proven guilty.

But sometimes there will be legal arguments about whether you get

bail or not and if you do then what conditions you have to agree to.

And because there are several defendants,

each one has their own lawyer.

Well, if you can think of a drugs case were there is a gang

involved or large scale fraud, where there's

a number of individuals involved, you could have a defence

saying something completely different from the last and

if you had one lawyer representing each client's views that would be

absolutely impossible to put forward three, four, five different versions

of events, and that's the reason why you need your own separate legal

representation to fight fearlessly and ferociously to put forward your

version of events and fight your court, or your case and your corner.

This is a case that will take some months to conclude.

It appears to be quite a detailed police investigation,

but given the complexity of the case, the matter could go on for nine,

12 months, even longer, so we and the client are left in a state of limbo

until the prosecution and the police have their case file together.

The Hyponatraemia Inquiry hears evidence from 179 witnesses.

For the families, the opportunity to tell their memories of what

happened is gruelling but vital.

'It's important for the families to support one another.

'We can support each family that goes through the process.

-'For the Fergusons, they supported us when we were giving evidence.

-Yes.'

And that obviously helped them, because they saw us

as parents, as a family, going through that process.

Today the Fergusons were giving evidence.

My role today was just about keeping it all on the rails.

Witnesses like this, who are giving evidence in this

sort of public inquiry, I think it's better to say nothing.

It's their evidence, it has to be emphasised that none of us were

there. They were there, it's their child and they lost their child.

And it was very moving.

It wasn't easy, but I felt comfortable,

because I was going up there to tell the truth.

You weren't being rushed

and you had your time to say what you had to say.

I think they understood themselves that we waited 12 years

to get to say what we wanted to say and they allowed us that time.

After 44 weeks of hearing evidence,

the Hyponatraemia Inquiry ends.

It's now down to the chairman to finish analysing all

the information he's heard and write his report.

For Stephen's clients,

the process itself has already achieved something.

This is the very end of the hyponatraemia brief,

and these files are now being shredded today in the next hour.

I've got a lorry coming down to take them away, cos there's so much bulk.

It certainly has achieved a lot for the parents,

because for the first time, we have an admission of liability

in relation to all of the children that I represent.

We have an apology, an unreserved apology from the trusts

involved, so you can understand from the parents' point of view,

that that is a major step forward.

I think it has made a massive difference

to how the Health Service in Northern Ireland sees itself.

When these children died in hospital, there was

a very poor system for reporting.

The investigation is now controlled, and there are now protocols for

the investigation of those types of incidents that we were dealing with.

Up until this inquiry occurred, we didn't have any apology,

nobody took any responsibility

and we certainly didn't have any admission of liability

for what happened in the hospitals that treated these children.

Next time...

For most barristers, this is the ultimate court experience.

Our case is that there should be an exceptionality provision.

-JUDGE:

-Right, so are you putting all your eggs into the exceptionality point?

'At this point all the work you have done that's well and good, but it's out of your control.'

You have to trust your counsel to make the case on your behalf.