Watch a trial at the Old Bailey – London chat forum

[Guest]

I intend to make a visit to the Old Bailey, as a member of the public and as a first time visitor, any suggestions/commnets/recommendations prior to this visit would be appreciated.

[Guest]

i've been to the old bailey and the royal courts of justice loads of times, and my advice would be to go to the royal courts of justice instead. The building is miles better (just look at the outside!) and they tend to have more "celebrity" and famous cases that you might see on the news later that night.

i actually think that watching cases inside court is quite boring. it is not like on the TV, it is extremely slow and there are lots of breaks where you are basically just waiting for them to sort some rules out. There are very few "a-ha!" moments, like you see on the TV, where the barrister manages to get some important piece of information out of the witnesses. Watching trials is probably only interesting when you have a particular interest in the law, or are thinking about having a career in law, like me.

I see lots of members of the public come in and sit down and it makes me laugh, because they are basically stuck there until the next break occurs, which could be an hour or more away, because they are often too afraid to get up and walk out (which you can do if you want, it's perfectly okay, but it can be very intimidating sitting in court and you dont feel like you can walk out).

But having said that... i have been wanting to try and get into the leveson inquiry. i am sure that the public can be admitted to that, and i might try and find out some info about it. Because seems to have lots of famous people giving evidence every day