The Secret Barrister - Stories of the Law and How It's Broken
This book was gifted to me a few months back from a very lovely woman who advised me, as someone with an interest in law, to read it. I am so happy that I did.
Before reading The Secret Barrister most of my knowledge of law related to its theoretical aspect, I saw the courts as the hands of justice - an abstract concept above human error. How wrong I had been. Of course, I am no stranger to the shortcomings of the judicial system, having written a detailed dissertation on its failings in regards to ethnic diversity and its potential effect on common law. However, in regards to the system as a whole, most specifically the happenings within court relating to barristers, solicitors, defendants and victims, I was mostly clueless. So we can say that this book 'educated' me and woke me up from my hopeful dreams of justice always prevailing in our courts.
I guess we all have within us some form of childish hope when it comes to the regulatory bodies within society (unless we are complete cynics). We endeavour to place our faith in parliament and in our courts, believing that at least to a very large extent (minus the heavily publicised slip ups of justice) our legal systems are functioning properly and working to keep us safe. This book exposes the naivety of this belief. The state is not above error, police do make mistakes within investigations, court trials do often go ahead with vital evidence missing and there are a substantial amount of the seemingly 'guilty' who get away with their crimes due to state failures like these. The legal system is seriously underfunded and is repetitively enduring the threats of further budget cuts. There is a false belief circulating society that all lawyers are rolling in money, that the profession of barristers and solicitors is one coated in deception and extortion. This couldn't be further from the truth. Reading this book opened my eyes to the realities of the profession of a barrister - the immense work it demands, the constant commute, the stresses of insufficient evidence and information, the emotional toll of the cases you take. If anything I can say that barristers aren't being paid enough. Yet it is not just barristers who suffer from these budget cuts, it is other members of this system like police departments, the magistrate's court, even the CPS as a whole.
The writer uses scenarios and stories to illustrate to their readers the realities of this system, these scenarios are all based on real experiences of the people who find themselves wound up in this system (their names and points of identification have been tweaked to maintain confidentiality). We read of witnesses being deprived of proper care and advice within court, of people denied bail yet receiving no compensation for the months spent in custody for a crime they did not commit. We hear of victims due to recurrent delays being unable to receive the justice they deserve in being relieved of the offense committed against them with a trial. The writer informs us of the unpreparedness of many barristers for the cases they are burdened to cover due to the fast-paced high workload nature of the job and of the complex nature of sentencing guidelines which are virtually incomprehensible to the public.
When I read of the Innocence Tax - being denied legal aid as your income is above a certain threshold which leads you to paying massive prices for legal representation to prove you are not guilty (which you are not compensated for), I was distraught. No one asks to be accused of a crime and threatened with legal consequences, so why must they pay to prove their innocence, especially when (no matter how middle class they seem) they cannot afford it? Deeper emotions were elicited when I read of appeals and how being wrongfully imprisoned for years for a crime you did not commit will likely result in you receiving no compensation and no support upon your release. The very system claiming to uphold justice can end up seeming very unjust.
Of course there is so much more within the book that I have not touched on and so many faults within our legal system and the government which forms legislation. The first step to change is acknowledgement and we as the public must acknowledge the failures of our system and of ourselves in overlooking the truth.
A major problem with this system is that it is underfunded but also that the public are uneducated on how it truly functions. Many people distance themselves from the law and the courts assuming that they will never have cause to be wrapped up in it - until they do. As a result, media headlines which spew false or very selective information are able to shape public opinions on a system which is so essential to the everyday functioning of society.
So I recommend this book to you even if you don't have an interest in law. Knowledge is a reserve of power that takes full force when it is applied. Don't wait till you desperately need it, learn now. Read the Secret Barrister and gain a more truthful perspective of your legal system.
Sidenote: There are so many interesting words in this book, I genuinely feel like my vocab skills have been upgraded - I didn't know words like 'loquacious' and 'addendum' even existed!
As always, here are a list of quotes I particularly liked and that you may find useful:
I write anonymously because it buys the freedom to be candid
Why is ours the only legal system in the world that empowers volunteers to send their fellow citizens to prison? [about Magistrate's Court]
For the trial to not even take place, due to unexplained state error, is not justice.
Once the advocate allows personal sentiment to usurp cold professional judgement, the whole adversarial system is jolted out of whack. I would be trespassing on the role of the jury. I am not here to form views or share feelings. I am here to promote my client's cause
[a straightforward definition of adversarialism] In practice this exercise involves not simply the presentation of an alternative case, but the demolition of your opponent's
In the culture of belief, nonsensical allegations are not properly challenged or tested until its far too late
There is no proven causative link between higher prison numbers and lower crime rates
If the law is inaccessible, and you depend for your information on unreliable sources, confusion and disengagement are unavoidable
