His Honour Judge Flying Lawyer

[Flying Lawyer]

Granite Monolith
By coincidence, someone accused me of ‘looking down’ on him only a few weeks ago – a defendant with a long history of mental health problems facing trial for murder. He added, as he dispensed with my services, that I was useless – which some might say showed that his mental health problems weren’t quite as severe as the medics thought. (He was, in due course, convicted of murder.)
I see you haven't posted much. I hope in time you enjoy PPRuNe as much as I have.


Thank you all so much for your (far too) generous comments; they’ve meant a lot to me.
After two years flying Chipmunks in the University of London Air Squadron (when the picture posted by BEagle was taken), it was a difficult choice between continuing with my original plans and applying to the RAF. Although I've loved my time at the Bar, I think I would have been just as happy as a professional pilot. Luckily, my aviation practice has enabled me to combine both interests - although I can't help notice that friends who went the RAF-BA route have either recently retired on handsome pensions or will do so in the next few years so maybe I made the wrong choice.

Being sacked by that defendant deprived me of finishing my career at the Bar with one final murder trial, and meant a case I did in a magistrates court the previous week turned out to be my last. However, for various reasons, I wasn’t disappointed by that. It brought back memories of cutting my teeth around the mags courts more than 30 years ago - a challenging experience for young counsel learning how to defend - and, best of all, we demolished the prosecution witnesses' allegations, won the case and were awarded costs. The thrill was as great as winning my very first case all those years ago - and with the added satisfaction that the client was a professional pilot accused of low flying (in a Hunter). I’m going to miss cross-examining witnesses.
Sir George Cayley (post #11), obviously knows about the case - and that I had a very enjoyable 45 minutes in the Hunter a few weeks later.

I’ve learnt a great deal from PPRuNe over the years which has not only helped my learn more about flying but, on occasions, helped me in aviation litigation cases. I’ve always found professional pilots to be extremely generous with their time when I’ve wanted help, and if I’ve managed to put something back into the pot in legal threads, it's only a small contribution compared with what I've been given.

Sadly, one of the consequences of the new job is that I won’t be able to post about legal matters again. I’ve enjoyed taking part in PPRuNe, and I’m going to miss it.

Thanks again for your very kind comments.


FL