For a dozen years, Sheriff Kevin Drummond has watched from the benches of the four Borders courts as the whole procession of local humanity trooped before him.
If anyone knows the peculiarities of dispensing justice in such a scattered rural area as the Borders, it is him. So when Sheriff Drummond gives his views in the current debate over the future of the region’s courts, people would be well advised to listen.
In his submission to the Scottish Courts Service review process, Sheriff Drummond has come down firmly on the side of retaining the status quo of small local court facilities served by a travelling sheriff.
The sheriff highlights the fact that the current Borders courts set-up is not just some quaint, historical anomaly that has survived by accident, but rather a system refined and improved over a considerable number of years to ensure there is access to justice for all.
Then again, if folk would just learn to behave themselves...