Judges, how many surveys have you been asked to complete recently? Beyond the compulsory New Zealand Census, most surveys are biased from the outset, completed only by those who feel inclined to share their opinions. My assumption is that you are not seeking another survey. Instead, perhaps you prefer to reflect on a perspective, acknowledging it may also carry bias, and consider whether truly “open-and-shut” cases even exist.
Even when an injured person is lying on the ground and another stands over them holding a weapon, the situation you are asked to adjudicate is rarely black and white.
I learnt this first-hand during a ride-along with the Oceanside Police Department in California, USA. My mentor that evening was Officer Sheila H., who later became one of the first female heads of a murder squad. My English upbringing failed me almost immediately when I instinctively held the door open for her, a gesture not appreciated in front of her male colleagues. Less than four minutes into patrol, we encountered an incident: an African American man lay injured with a painful leg, while another stood over him holding a baseball bat. At first glance, it appeared obvious – the man with the bat was guilty, the injured party the victim.
Yet Officer H. arrested the man on the ground. Witnesses revealed the injured party had attempted to intimidate a group at a bus stop with the bat. One passenger wrestled the bat away and struck him once, disabling the threat and protecting others. What looked like an open-and-shut case was, in fact, far more complex.
Stability: Not Always Black and White
Stability, like justice, is rarely absolute. We may begin by thinking of personal stability, but soon realise we also seek it for our families, communities, our country, and the wider world. Judges are charged with helping to preserve stability across all these levels.
Remarkably, our very existence demonstrates stability. We stand each day on a vast spinning sphere, Earth, that rotates at about 1,500km per hour. Do we ever pause to consider this feat? Standing itself took us 18–24 months to master as infants, and nearly 20 years to refine into effortless balance. Yet after the age of 40, without deliberate exercise, stability begins to decline.
Our physical world does not stop spinning, not even for the Supreme Court, though some may believe it will eventually for the Supreme Being. Until then, perhaps we should all implement a daily stability programme.
The Six-Second Rule
After 40, a simple precaution is the six-second rule: when changing head position, especially from lying to sitting or sitting to standing, count to six before moving further. At night, when body awareness is dulled, this can prevent sudden dizziness and loss of balance.
Judges know the power of pause: in a complex case, rushing to deliberate rarely serves justice. The more you care, the more you pause.
Pause (noun): a temporary stop or rest.
Temporary (adjective): short-term; interim.
Daily Stability Practices
When time allows, targeted stability exercises can be excellent preparation for a day’s work. A favourite is simple yet effective:
Stand a short distance from the corner of a wall, facing outwards.
Twist your torso so both hands touch the corner on the right, then the left. Repeat for about one minute.
Vary the speed to stimulate different stability receptors in the body.
Progress by repeating the exercise while standing on one leg for a minute, then switch to the other.
Even frail patients have benefited from this activity when introduced gradually, using the wall or a chair for support.
Not many guarantees exist in medicine, but one is certain: at some point, life will disorient us physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally. The least we can do is prepare. Stability work, in essence, is “getting your wits about you.”
The Open and Shut Case
Stability: the quality, state, or degree of being stable; the strength to endure; the property of a body to return to equilibrium when disturbed.
Stability should not be left to aspiration, nor require perspiration—it should simply be part of our routine. With consistent practice, maintaining stability may indeed become an open-and-shut case.