Files and lunch locked away
A court session at the Stratford Housing Centre was delayed by nearly an hour yesterday after a judge’s chamber door became jammed.
The afternoon listing was suspended for 50 minutes after a deputy district judge was barred from his office by a lock malfunction.
The episode, which was witnessed by court blogger Daniel Cloake, began in the afternoon. With six possession and trespass cases listed to begin at 2pm, an usher announced to the waiting punters outside the court that there was a mechanical failure with a door that had been “a bit of a nemesis for some time”.
Fifty minutes later, the court finally resumed. The judge offered a hasty apology, explaining, “there was a problem with access to the room where the files and my lunch were kept” before quickly adding “my lunch was the least important thing”.
The final of the six cases did not finish until just before 5pm.
Apologising to the parties for the late finish, the judge said “if it hadn’t been for that wretched door jamming we might have been done a bit earlier”.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service has been approached for comment.