Dressing for court has been tricky as the mercury rises but the listings office in the Royal Courts of Justice is doing its bit. The note ‘Unrobed - due to current weather temperatures’ has appeared in the King’s Bench divison’s daily cause list this week.

One assumes it is an attempt to save barristers from carrying their black billowing robes and expensive horsehair wigs to court just to be told while they are on their feet that they may take them off. It is not a rare occurence for judge’s to give that allowance but Obiter has always wondered if those that choose to keep their robes on after such an instruction do so because they feel they have carried them all this way so they may as well. 

The lyrics to Nelly’s Hot in Herre [sic] spring to mind, though it must be emphasised that the court has not gone so far as to tell those attending to ‘take off all your clothes’. The unrobing is a start, however.

 

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