"Bystander" wrote in message
...
This has certainly happened before; I remember similar cases being
reported in teh newspapers. Many years ago, a friend of mine went
along to help a defendant in a magistrates court. The court staff
simply assumed that he was a solicitor and would be representing the
defendant, although he never said so, so he just took the line of
least resistance and went ahead and did it. Got him off, too.

This does not bother me too much, but the bogus doctors who do the same
thing from time to time are truly scary.

I have always thought it would be very easy to masquerade as a lawyer. No
one ever challenges the status of those who attend court, as far as I can
see.

In particular, if you get robed as a barrister, no one ever dares challenge
you. I remember when I was a pupil, before I even had rights of audience,
and I had to go and do an advocacy exercise in Leeds Combined Court
Building. Having robed, I walked down the corridor towards the courtroom,
and the crowds magically parted to make way for me. I had rarely seen
anything like it, and I felt a complete fraud.

Andrew McGee