By Janelle Christie
It seems that many people attending court are no longer interested in or willing to attire themselves in accordance with the expected and well established dress code of the courts.
In recent years it has become necessary for the court to have posted outside courthouses or on their doors, certain guidelines stipulating the accepted mode of dress. However, some people disregard them and show up wearing all kinds of “forbidden” or unacceptable items of clothing.
Officers on duty at courthouses have sent people out of the courtroom, on numerous occasions to attire themselves properly or to “put themselves together. A fraction of these persons, are habitual offenders.
Judges have found it necessary from time to time, to comment on how people are turning out for court. Some have said citizens have no regard for the court. One judge even commented that people would not turn up at the (US) embassy the way they come to court.
Short, tight dresses, ripped jeans, sleeveless blouses, slippers, and earrings (for males) are frequently worn to court. Some men also fail to tuck their shirts into their pants or to wear their pants at their waist.
On the other hand, it is often disputed that there is a gender bias as males are allowed to wear jeans pants while women aren’t even allowed to wear pedal pushers. It is also argued that sometimes persons can be allowed into the courthouse if their dress is “not too outrageous”, as prisoners are allowed to wear “forbidden clothes.”
Is it that the rules of the court regarding dress code need to be revisited? Or do citizens need to gain a sense of pride and respect when entering the courts and other government places such as clinics and hospitals that also have problems with in what people attend.
