Silence all stand please and remain standing. I suppose in the courtroom I'm called Your Honor. All persons having business before this honorable court are commanded to give their attendance and they shall be heard. In normal life, I'm usually called Simon.
Gertie is one of the three watching women of the court. She's not blindfolded because Justice Redmond Barry thought it'd be a good idea if she could see everybody that comes through the door. In the workplace... it varies the associates like they tend to call us Judge I think. Our legal system has always been premised in modern times on the assumption that it's better that 10 guilty men or women go free than that one innocent man or woman is wrongfully convicted.
You can't go wrong with Judge if you go with judge nobody's going to get offended nobody's gonna tell you off. And they shall be heard. And they shall be heard. The whole truth. And nothing but the truth. Nothing but the truth.
I'm Greg Müller. I'm Evan Martin. This is Gertie's Law a podcast series from the Supreme Court of Victoria. We'll hear from the judges, explore the labyrinth of corridors and even the underground dungeons. Meet the people behind the difficult decisions made here every day. The pressure to get things right is enormous and so it should be. And get to know the system from the inside.
I'm Anne Ferguson, Chief Justice of Victoria. What we do here every day directly affects people's lives. It's complex, it matters to our democracy and it's fascinating. You might think you know this court many criminals who've appeared here are household names and it's on the news most nights. But how well do you really know it? Well I was kind of freaked out to be frank so I just came off the street and next minute I'm sitting like two or three meters from a serial killer.
I think I've seen too much violent death apart from anything else I've sentenced a significant number of people to usually very long sentences.
Punishment's a tricky concept because we don't live in a lawless society in which vengeance or lynch mobs rule.
This is 21st century justice in a 19th century building. These courtrooms look pretty much the same as they did 130 years ago except for the laptops on the bar table and the female judges. The judge must come to an instinctive synthesis to arrive at the final sentence. When I first heard the term instinctive synthesis I thought it was an 80s rock band.
You get a very, very detailed look at areas of life that you wouldn't ordinarily go into I recently heard a case about spring onion farming. For entertainment, people would come to the courts and they would watch the cases and they would watch the leading barristers perform and they would watch the salacious murder trials in the public galleries of the courts were full. That is mostly not the case any more. How has this justice system evolved since the eighteen eighties?
What happens here after the news cameras and the microphones are turned off? And just how the judges come to their decisions?
Gertie's Law raises the curtain on the Supreme Court of Victoria. Each episode will explore a different aspect of the court such as sentencing, juries suppression orders and parole. Listen to gird his law wherever you get your podcasts. First episode March 25th. This honorable court stands adjourned.