*/
By The Secret Barrister
Published by Picador (Hardcover: September 2020)
ISBN 978-1529009941
Reviewed by John Cooper QC
The latest offering from The Secret Barrister – a devastating analysis of the gulf between what we think we know and the reality of how our justice system works – couldn’t be more timely.
Only recently, Boris Johnson has been citing ‘lefty lawyers’ as public enemy number one when it comes to the fair administration of justice in this country, sounding a dog whistle to the media and public alike and diverting attention from the ineptitude of politicians. (And the depressing thing about it, is that it works.)
Page after page of The Secret Barrister’s much anticipated second book presents eye-watering examples of misrepresentations about the law, the courts and the people who work in them. It cites flagrant inaccuracies, many of them deliberate, which fundamentally undermine trust in the entire process.
The problem, as the book points out, is that most people in this country think that the legal system is there for someone else. We will not be wrongly accused; the criminal justice system is there to bring the ‘bad guys’ to justice. Neither, as the book cogently reminds us on numerous occasions, do we anticipate that we might need to challenge a department of state, or claim for devastating injury, or seek access to our children, and so when the government uses it as the perennial ‘whipping post’, who cares?
After all, it would be a very lonely place on our doorsteps every Thursday evening if we were all invited out to clap for the lawyers… Unless of course you are one of those who has suffered or lost loved ones as a result of negligence or incompetence, or wanted to hold the government to account, or might one day in the future.
The Secret Barrister makes clear, ‘As with so much else of what we’ve seen in these pages, the greatest trick they are pulling is convincing you that the alleged “criminal” will never be you.’
For those in power, lawyers and the law can be real irritants. They tend to get in the way, and a narrative needs to be created in the public mind, which denigrates them (hence, it’s all the fault of the ‘lefty human rights lawyers and other do gooders’).
The book is relentless in its forensic deconstruction of these myths.
By regular reference to ‘The Court of Public Opinion’, a place where politicians and media go when they don’t like Courts of Law, we see how easy it is to create a lynch mob approach to justice and a climate where politicians can thrive when openly boasting about breaking the law.
This is an accusation which can be levelled against politicians of all colours and seen most vividly during the attacks on the independence of the judges during the Supreme Court prorogation hearings.
The book deals with these big issues, in chapters about democracy, liberty and access to justice. But perhaps its most devastating critique concerns those quieter, personal rights and protections that the constant insidious attacks from politicians, media and some commentators , so gravely undermine… and our acquiescence in the process.
In fact, in all the cases cited in the book, the law is rather sensible. Shock horror, the law of self-defence does allow you to strike first, the legal aid system does not put ridiculous amounts of money in defendants’ pockets and employment laws, far from encouraging wasteful spending, leave a lot of needful people without help or representation. The Secret Barrister puts it succinctly, ‘And while I don’t seek an inverted narrative, casting all employees as virtuous saints and all employers as neo-Dickensian… I do find it a curious act of self-flagellation that we so rarely allow ourselves to contemplate the possibility that we, the little people, might be entitled to stick up for ourselves.’
This is a book which will make you angry. But it will also concern you. And so it should. It presents an invaluable stick of garlic against those who would dilute our protections, take away our rights and substitute in their place powers, given to the already powerful.
Read it. Keep it. And keep reading it.
The latest offering from The Secret Barrister – a devastating analysis of the gulf between what we think we know and the reality of how our justice system works – couldn’t be more timely.
Only recently, Boris Johnson has been citing ‘lefty lawyers’ as public enemy number one when it comes to the fair administration of justice in this country, sounding a dog whistle to the media and public alike and diverting attention from the ineptitude of politicians. (And the depressing thing about it, is that it works.)
Page after page of The Secret Barrister’s much anticipated second book presents eye-watering examples of misrepresentations about the law, the courts and the people who work in them. It cites flagrant inaccuracies, many of them deliberate, which fundamentally undermine trust in the entire process.
The problem, as the book points out, is that most people in this country think that the legal system is there for someone else. We will not be wrongly accused; the criminal justice system is there to bring the ‘bad guys’ to justice. Neither, as the book cogently reminds us on numerous occasions, do we anticipate that we might need to challenge a department of state, or claim for devastating injury, or seek access to our children, and so when the government uses it as the perennial ‘whipping post’, who cares?
After all, it would be a very lonely place on our doorsteps every Thursday evening if we were all invited out to clap for the lawyers… Unless of course you are one of those who has suffered or lost loved ones as a result of negligence or incompetence, or wanted to hold the government to account, or might one day in the future.
The Secret Barrister makes clear, ‘As with so much else of what we’ve seen in these pages, the greatest trick they are pulling is convincing you that the alleged “criminal” will never be you.’
For those in power, lawyers and the law can be real irritants. They tend to get in the way, and a narrative needs to be created in the public mind, which denigrates them (hence, it’s all the fault of the ‘lefty human rights lawyers and other do gooders’).
The book is relentless in its forensic deconstruction of these myths.
By regular reference to ‘The Court of Public Opinion’, a place where politicians and media go when they don’t like Courts of Law, we see how easy it is to create a lynch mob approach to justice and a climate where politicians can thrive when openly boasting about breaking the law.
This is an accusation which can be levelled against politicians of all colours and seen most vividly during the attacks on the independence of the judges during the Supreme Court prorogation hearings.
The book deals with these big issues, in chapters about democracy, liberty and access to justice. But perhaps its most devastating critique concerns those quieter, personal rights and protections that the constant insidious attacks from politicians, media and some commentators , so gravely undermine… and our acquiescence in the process.
In fact, in all the cases cited in the book, the law is rather sensible. Shock horror, the law of self-defence does allow you to strike first, the legal aid system does not put ridiculous amounts of money in defendants’ pockets and employment laws, far from encouraging wasteful spending, leave a lot of needful people without help or representation. The Secret Barrister puts it succinctly, ‘And while I don’t seek an inverted narrative, casting all employees as virtuous saints and all employers as neo-Dickensian… I do find it a curious act of self-flagellation that we so rarely allow ourselves to contemplate the possibility that we, the little people, might be entitled to stick up for ourselves.’
This is a book which will make you angry. But it will also concern you. And so it should. It presents an invaluable stick of garlic against those who would dilute our protections, take away our rights and substitute in their place powers, given to the already powerful.
Read it. Keep it. And keep reading it.
By The Secret Barrister
Published by Picador (Hardcover: September 2020)
ISBN 978-1529009941
Reviewed by John Cooper QC
As we look ahead to Justice Week 2022, the sustainability of the Criminal Bar remains a critical issue for the government to address
Opportunity for female sopranos/contraltos in secondary education, or who have recently finished secondary education but have not yet begun tertiary education. Eligibility includes children of members of the Bar
Fear of the collection and test process is a common factor among clients, especially among vulnerable adults in complex family law cases. Cansford Laboratories shares some tips to help the testing process run as smoothly as possible
Casey Randall explains how complex relationship DNA tests can best be used – and interpreted – by counsel
Casey Randall, Head of DNA at AlphaBiolabs, explores what barristers need to know about DNA testing for immigration, including when a client might wish to submit DNA evidence, and which relationship tests are best for immigration applications
Julian Morgan reminds barristers of the top five areas to consider before 5 April
The case ofR v Brecanihas complicated matters for defence lawyers. Emma Fielding talks to gang culture expert, Dr Simon Harding about County Lines, exploitation and modern slavery
Barristers are particularly at risk of burnout because of the nature of our work and our approach to it but it doesnt have to be this way. Jade Bucklow explores how culture, work and lifestyle changes can rejuvinate our mental health...
Professionally embarrassed? The circumstances in which criminal barristers may return instructions to appear at trial have become clearer following the Court of Appeal judgment inR v Daniels By Abigail Bright
The Schools Consent Project (SCP) is educating tens of thousands of teenagers about the law around consent to challenge and change what is now endemic behaviour. Here, its founder, barrister Kate Parker talks to Chris Henley QC about SCPs work and its association with Jodie Comers West End playPrima Facie, in which she plays a criminal barrister who is sexually assaulted
Following the launch of the Life at the Young Bar report and a nationwide listening exercise, Michael Polak and Michael Harwood outline the Young Barristers Committees raft of initiatives designed to address your issues of concern