COUNSEL IN UNIFORM

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 281, 26 August 1942, Page 4

COUNSEL IN UNIFORM

Permission Unnecessary

For counsel to appear in tiie Supreme Court in uniform needed no apology and no explanation, and no permission was needed, said the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), when Mr. P. B. Cooke, K.C., who appeared in the Supreme Court, Wellington, yesterday in uniform, said there appeared to be some doubt about the correct attire for a soldier at the bar. The subject was remarked on in a northern court recently. Mr. Cooke said all counsel wished to bo respectful to the Court and would like direction from it His Honour said the rule of the Bar Council in England was that, excepting barristers who were serving in the armed forces and who were required to wear a uniform, barristers should wear not their uniform ’ but robes. Conversely, if a barrister was required to wear a uniform while serving in the forces and appeared in Court he was bound to wear the uniform and not robes. The council of the New Zealand Law Society followed the English practice, and precisely the same practice was adopted in New Zealand in the Great War. If a man not required to wear a uniform appeared in Court in uniform it was contempt, of court. Barristers had been appearing, in uniform in New Zealand courts since September, 1939.