As he prepares to retire as president of the Queen’s Bench Division, Lord Justice Leveson took a trip down memory lane last week delivering the Lord Slynn Memorial Lecture at the Royal Courts of Justice. Recalling his time as a junior barrister in 1970s Liverpool, Leveson said he would receive briefs ‘capable of being folded in half lengthways’ which could be held in one hand. ‘I remember occasions when I was involved in two trials on the same day. There was one occasion when I started a third!’ Leveson also recalled when phones ‘had wires attached to them’ and documents were typed with carbon paper. Given the relentless IT problems that practitioners face in court, no doubt many wish they could return to that simpler time.

 

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