Interview rooms are for interviews not snacking

Radio NZ reports:

Two criminal lawyers have clashed over whether a sandwich should have been eaten in an interview room with allegations flying between both sides as to how the matter unfolded – and who said what. …

The court building had a lawyers’ room and three client interview rooms.

During a 15-minute court break, the first lawyer entered an empty interview room to eat a sandwich, a self-management measure for his diabetic condition. While he was there, a duty lawyer entered the interview room wanting to use it for a confidential discussion with her clients.

The lawyer eating his lunch said he did not want to leave and “words were exchanged”.

The diabetic condition is irrelevant. The interview room is for interviews. He could eat his sandwich elsewhere. There is in fact a lawyers’ room.

While the lawyer complained the duty lawyer had failed to maintain professional standards and did not treat him with respect, the duty lawyer said she was surprised and disappointed by his attitude and that his use of the complaints process was improper and an abuse of process.

So he was in the wrong, he refused to leave the interview room, and then has such a sense of entitlement he lodges a formal complaint against the other lawyer because she called him out.

He’s lucky their names were not made public.