What to expect before you enter court

18.1The shape of the morning

Timeline

Local Courts open around 8:30 am and lists are called from 9:30. Between those times the building fills with everyone listed that day, their lawyers, their families, police, and the duty solicitor's queue. The sequence for you is: security, find the list, find the courtroom, register with the court officer, wait, be called. Each step is small. Done in a hurry, each one goes wrong.

Be inside the building by 9:00 am. If you want to see the duty solicitor, be inside by 8:45, because the queue forms before the doors open at some courts.

18.2Security

Entry

Every NSW courthouse has airport-style screening. Bags through a scanner, you through a metal detector, belts and keys in a tray. Sheriff's officers run it and they are not in a hurry. Allow ten minutes at a suburban court and twenty at Downing Centre or Parramatta.

Do not bring anything you would not take through an airport, and think about that sentence for a moment in light of why you are there. Sheriff's officers find drugs in bags at court security more often than you would expect, and the consequence is a fresh charge, at the courthouse, on the day of your sentence.

18.3What to bring

Checklist

Your folder, containing: the CAN; the facts sheet with your notes; three signed original references and two copies of each; your apology letter, original and two copies; the program letter, original and two copies; your one-page submissions; any bail papers. Photo identification. A pen. Water. Something to read, because you may wait three hours.

Leave at home: anything you would not want searched, anyone who cannot sit quietly for three hours, and your expectations about timing.