_{"If they make a film about this, I'd like Ryan Reynolds to play me."}

In what sounds like the start of a bad joke, a barrister has got stuck in a lift while attending court.

The lawyer was attending Nottingham Crown Court, when he got in a lift alone, which malfunctioned between the first and second floor, leaving him trapped. 

“I got in at 9.30am and pressed the button for level two (where the advocates room is situated) and it became stuck just outside," the unidentified lawyer told the Nottingham Post. "I called the number on the inside of the lift and they referred me to Nottingham Crown Court’s office which I called and they said ‘what can I do for you?’ to which I replied ‘I’m stuck in the lift’." 

“I could hear the voices of people on the top floor shouting ‘I can’t hear you’" he said, without confirming whether or not they were the opposing legal team, with their fingers in their ears. 

"In fairness, once they had my number everyone did the best they could for me,” said the lawyer. 

Maintenance staff got on the case to fix the elevator. It was reported that the barrister was finally freed at around 10.20am, some 50 minutes after he had entered the lift.

The barrister stated that he was "in the middle of trial" and "had to ask someone to let the judge know.” However, the hearing was not impacted, RollOnFriday understands. 

It comes at a time when there have been questions raised over government funding for public buildings, including schools, hospitals and courts. Last year, a court building had to be shut down due to safety concerns over the roof, with cases having to be moved to other sites.

While Google reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt, one visitor to the Nottingham crown court believed they had also discovered another potential hazard:

The court declined to comment about the broken lift. Of course, it might have just been a one-off, and not point to anything substantially wrong with the building. And it's not just court buildings that can be affected by a dodgy shaft.