How to confuse a lawyer

In 1993, a movie was filmed partly in the Toogoolawah area. The film was titled Rough Diamonds and starred many fine Australian actors. It has since been on television a few times.

The film makers used various locations in the area including a partly vacant building that stands prominently in Toogoolawah’s main street. It was rigged up as a courthouse to suit the storyline.

About 18 months after filming was completed, the building still had the paint scheme and signage of a courthouse. Toogoolawah now boasted a movie-set courthouse as well as a real courthouse.

During this time a civil case was listed. The lawyer for one of the parties had to come from Brisbane and the hearing was delayed for 10 minutes because the lawyer was late. While this was not unusual, his method of transport was. He arrived on foot from the main highway. Where was his car? Did he hitch to court? Had he leapt from a plane (Toogoolawah is a renowned centre for skydiving)? After some prompting, the lawyer provided an explanation for his situation.

The lawyer had driven down the main street of Toogoolawah, spotted the courthouse, parked his Mercedes, and then proceeded to wonder why no one was about. A local informed the lawyer that the building was part of a movie set and then gave him directions to the real courthouse. In normal circumstances the lawyer would have been at the right place at the right time. But on this day, after locking his car and continuing on foot, he missed a critical turn and ended up at the highway. With the real courthouse visible from there, the lawyer decided to avoid any further delays and walk the rest of the way.

Finally, the case proceeded that day. Unfortunately for the lawyer, not only did he lose his way that day, he also lost the court case. Fortunately for other visitors to Toogoolawah, the movie-set courthouse was eventually repainted as new businesses took over the premises, meaning no-one else was subject to the same confusing situation.