Courtroom coverage…the juggling act

ONE of the hardest aspects of covering major court cases is the balancing act between staying in the courtroom and getting back to the office.

With so much potential news stories and background material being unearthed on a daily basis it is often both easy and tempting to stay for long periods in court, at the cost of the day-to-day stories needed to fill the rest of the paper.

Personally I find myself worrying that if I don’t stay in court as much as possible I will miss some crucial element of the proceedings.

But the truth of the matter is it is pretty much impossible to be in court all the time, it is pretty much impossible to report on everything that happens and it is pretty much impossible to sit and concentrate on every detail every day for nine weeks.

And despite spending nearly every day in court for the last three weeks I still managed to miss a major report on a witness claiming he was paid to guard £30m worth of drugs, so I guess the morale of the story is, you can’t do it all.

But it was indeed rather frustrating to see that particular report on the front of the Nottingham Evening Post and realise I had missed out on a gem of a story, despite all my recent efforts.

Really, all that you can do as a reporter is manage your time effectively, covering the early parts of the trial when the main details and all the juicy facts are uncovered and then dip in and out of the hearing as and when an important event or witness enters the court arena.

It is a difficult juggling act, but a skill that becomes much easier as the trial slowly grinds on and on.

Courtroom drama . . . it’s better than Taggart

Major court reporting is without doubt the most exciting part of being a journalist and better than any television drama.

Watching the Gary Hardy trial unfold at Nottingham Crown court has been a real pleasure for me and certainly better than anything Taggart or Poirot can serve up.

Looking at the case from the eyes of just a normal man on the street the evidence dished up has been gripping, thrilling, emotional and tense. The future lives of all those involved has already been changed forever or will soon be changed and it is hard not to be caught up in that drama.

As a journalist the case is the perfect professional opportunity for me to work on a major story and to stamp my own personal authority on the Chad coverage.

Even at this early stage it is clear there is a virtually unlimited number of stories flowing from the proceedings, and while it is a big challenge to cover all that goes on each day it is certainly hugely exciting to be at the cutting edge of journalism.

The days have been long and intense and my patience and concentration has often been stretched (along with my wrist and my biro) but the coverage in the Chad, even if I do say so myself, has been excellent and something I am rather proud of.

So what does the typical court day involve?. All being well court begins at 10.30am when the evidence of the first witness is unleashed and my pen leaps into action. Usually each witness throws up a number of stories in each session leaving with me with the often interesting challenge of writing three or four stories during the lunch interval, while trying to juggle my notepad and my cheese sandwhich.

It is then up to me to ring the stories through to our main Mansfield office for one of the other unlucky reporters to take down and file through for our regular internet updates – a process which can often be rather tricky thanks to the frequent bangs, creaks and noises of doors, people and workmen in the court building.

After a quick ten-minute breather the madness of court once again leaps into action and the process is repeated all over again, leaving me to file another one or two stories to keep the news-hungry Chad.co.uk readers happy during the afternoon before I drag my weary body back home.

So while my wrist and brain will no doubt be rather happy when the case ends, I myself will miss the professional buzz the trial has brought me . . . luckily for me I still have another two months to savour.

Courtroom Craziness

FOR a person like myself who has no patience at the best of times, court reporting can be quite the challenge.

The biggest task in fact is not the actual court reporting (something I generally find easy and enjoyable) but the tedious challenge of killing time and managing the boredom as I wait for the case to get underway or reconvene after lunch or one of the many interruptions.

And this particular element of court reporting is something I find the most frustrating.

Indeed the prospect of sitting re-reading a book on WW1 that I’ve already read three times before (probably whilst waiting during a previous trial) or listening to the rather entertaining Notes From A Small Island on my MP3 player for the 19th time is not a pleasant thought.

And this week I have once again come face-to-face with my own courtroom craziness as a rather important drugs trial, which is expected to last between six and ten weeks, finally got underway.

Thankfully court reporting for me has once saving grace. Though the hours of waiting may be as dull as the sky over Lapland in winter, the journalistic rewards are there for all to see.

Through that dullness is one shining light….the chance to work on a massive story and to bag the front page that everyone wants to read.

And though the end of the case remains many moons away, I couldn’t help but sit there like an exciting child waiting to open his Christmas presents as the lawyers massed and the case officially opened.

Now let us all pray that the solitude doesn’t drive me mad before the case concludes.