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Mrs. Mary J. L. Kennedy

All Rise

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 6 mai 2018

Achat vérifié

I am not a lawyer. But my husband is, a company law barrister. He has never done any criminal work. We have lots of friends in all branches of the law though, and I am used to being surrounded by legal news and chat. So I thought I had a pretty fair idea of how the criminal law system in England and Wales works in reality rather than simply in theory. I was wrong. Having read this book I am a wiser, and much sadder, woman.

It seems that now, if you look behind the very thin surface veneer of any public service in the UK you find the same things - chaos and Not Enough To Go Round. Why? It is one of the richest countries in the world, and the expectations and sense of entitlements of its citizens cannot exceed the ability of the state to deliver them to the extent that they appear to.

We need more books like this. We need them to be thrust not only into the hands of all politicians, but of teachers too, of all influencers. It's time to get angry!

421 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

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Navajo

Stunning exposé

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 30 avril 2018

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As a non-legal bod I found this brilliantly written exposé of the crisis in UK criminal justice totally compelling. The author develops a conversational style which means an easier read in some of the drier sections, however there aren't many of those. Every single person in this country should care about how our criminal justice system works, or as is currently the case, just doesn't. The chapter on wrongful convictions and how this government has passed legislation which has effectively ensured that receiving state compensation for wrongful conviction is well nigh impossible, shocked me to the core. Perhaps the fall out from the Windrush scandal allied to the spate of non-disclosure dropped cases will empower those within the system to group together and get a few worthy journalists involved to create an unstoppable momentum for change, for that is what is needed. A fantastic book.

161 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

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George Rosenberg

Indictment of the collapse of the British criminal law system.

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 10 mai 2018

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This is a shocking book and a must read. A lot of the criticism arises from the deliberate policies of the most recent two governments to undermine the system by starving it of resources and killing off legal aid, but the problem goes back a long way and this is not ignored. It includes an excellent history of the English criminal law system, much of which was news to me. The vast bulk of trials are conducted by untrained amateurs in the Magistrates Courts. It may be cheap but it is not cheerful. I suspect it was even worse in the past but was cheerfully overlooked as those with political power and clout were rarely negatively affected by it. I would have thought that most of the criticism clearly explained here would offend people from across the political spectrum, but it seems that this is not the case. There is a huge anti-justice lobby, recently concentrated in the Conservative and Liberal parties. Despite the trenchant criticism - intended not only to expose the faults of the system but also to ram home how important it is to society as a whole, I'm not optimistic that anything will change. If it does change this book will have been one of the catalysts.

109 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

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J. Baldwin

An impassioned tirade

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 13 août 2018

Achat vérifié

The author here is a practising barrister who hits many bulls-eyes in his/her impassioned tirade about the many deficiencies of the criminal justice system in this country. S/he identifies a depressing litany of extremely disturbing problems that have served to undermine the search for justice. Many of these are the direct result of the iniquitous austerity policies of government.

The Secret Barrister is packed with information and detail and a forceful argument is sustained throughout the book. If this leads to a good deal of ranting, it is because the author feels genuine anger and passion about the problems. I must confess, however, that I was put off by the author's forced humour and his/her fondness for flippant colloquialisms. S/he also seems unable to decide whether the book is intended as a serious contribution to the criminal justice literature, a taster for first year law students or a pot boiler for popular consumption. Though somewhat idiosyncratic, The Secret Barrister is nonetheless firmly based on the author's own experience of working in the criminal courts and on his/her knowledge of the academic writing and research on the subject.

79 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

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youonlyliveoce

Hard work and some questionable assumptions

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 17 mars 2019

Achat vérifié

Clumsy writing and very hard to read. Some bits were contradictory (e.g. the relative lack of impact of family law to the potential restrictions on family life imposed by criminal law. Surely the loss of access to one’s children through the family courts is no less than that arising from a parents’s imprisonment? His argument that as a nation we are making the transition from a ‘criminal justice system’ to a ‘criminal system’ would benefit from further justification; is the system we have now better or worse than the days in which one could be transported to Australia for relatively low level crimes? I found the book patronising and assumed an unjustifiable ignorance of the criminal justice system, and gave up before the end of the first chapter. Maybe my review is unfair, but flicking through the remaining pages suggests not.

55 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

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SAR

Outstanding

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 23 mars 2018

Achat vérifié

An outstanding book that should be required reading for lawyers and non-lawyers, alike. If you think the issues raised don't matter to you, you're mistaken. The book portrays the problems in the criminal justice system with clarity and (often gallows) humour. An engrossing read.

97 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

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The Woodmice

An eye opener for the innocent who assume our legal system will always be there and will never affect *them*

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 30 avril 2018

Achat vérifié

Entertaining, laugh out loud funny, occasionally sweary, but always compelling, this book shows how the underbelly of our dilapidated criminal court system puts the Jeremy Kyle Show firmly at the glamourous end of the spectrum.
It leaves no doubt that the age of 'fat cats' is well and truly over for our new intake of struggling junior barristers who have to navigate a level of complete chaos in our courts that exploits their goodwill and sense of moral duty while running on an empty tank.

Worst of all, it is we, the innocent, who are paying the price of a woefully underfunded public legal system. So few of us now qualify for Legal Aid that if you are innocently acquitted from false accusations, *you* will be the one left with no apology and no refund - just a lifetime mortgage repaying 100K plus legal fees defending a case you were ultimately blameless for.

It also highlights the differences and advantages of seeking 'the truth' through our seemingly contentious yet potentially rigorous adversarial system over a potentially flawed continental inquisitorial approach.

An excellent, wide ranging -and funny- book that should make us just as concerned about this as the dismantling of the NHS.

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Amazon Customer

A superb read

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 26 mars 2018

Achat vérifié

The Secret Barrister has produced a magnificent polemic, in turns heartbreaking, enraging, fascinating and uplifting. This should be required reading for anyone in government, and anyone planning to interview Chris Grayling.

59 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

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MarkP

One of the few books on which I gave up before finishing.

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 20 octobre 2019

Achat vérifié

I expected this book to be an autobiographical account of the author's experiences in the law courts. I have some interest in the subject as many years ago, I once had a stop-gap job working in an administrative job at my local court. It was fascinating to see at first hand how the law was applied.

Unfortunately, I found the book disappointing. It consists simply of a long, long rant about all that is wrong with the way in which the British justice system operates. It held my interest up to a point, but then became rather like listening to the sort of boring person that everyone tries to avoid at a party ("...and another thing...")

It may be of interest to someone who is considering entering the legal profession, but I can't recommend it to the general reader.

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P. Brooks

Only the Half of it!

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 14 juin 2019

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This is a passionate critique of the "Justice" System in the UK. It is well written and I learned a lot. But, in truth, it is only the half of it! The author seems to believe that pouring more money into the system will solve the terrible slippage of standards and injustices that are now rampant throughout every part of British Law ranging from the Police, through Solicitors and Barristers, to the Judiciary and up to the House of Lords, who today mostly consist of corrupt Has-been Party Hacks.
More money may help, but the system is so corroded that it is unlikely to help much, and could make it worse in some respects. The Writer talks of the conscientious men and women who are doing their best in a failing Establishment. I am sure some must exist, but the Author seems oblivious of how pervasive the concept of "Guilty until proven innocent," has become at every level within the Courts, and how obsequious lawyers apparently have to be towards judges in order to protect their careers.
In '97 I was prosecuted for going through a red light. The Duty Solicitor assured me I would be let off with a warning because the light had stuck on red. The Copper who booked me at least had the integrity to say I had proceeded through a stuck light, and did so with great care. Prosecutor was a decent fellow, and did ask that I be let off with a warning. The Judge was incredibly rude to the female Duty Solicitor (visibly crushing her) and to me. He also testified against me from the Bench (a really serious judicial offence), thereby also effectively calling both the Prosecutor and the Copper who booked me liars, and he fined me a vast sum. (The Prosecutor sought me out afterwards o apologise.)
This Judge later rose high in the ranks of the Judiciary and several police officers confirmed to me that he was a Bully and well known for erratic judgements; moreover, a couple of them said he was corrupt.
The consequence of this was I, a lay person, determined to learn enough law to defend myself in future. I began to visit the Courts and sit in the Public Gallery during mostly lessor, i.e., minor criminal or traffic infringement Trials. I am appalled at the farce of so-called justice in Britain today. The attitude that the Defendant is guilty until he/she proves herself innocent is almost universal. Solicitors in general and Duty Solicitors in particular, do nothing to make the Prosecution prove their claim. (It is a fundamental of Law that he who makes the claim must prove the claim.) Prosecutors regularly twist that against the Defendant to get the poor ignorant schmuck to claim he/she is innocent—so prove it! A Defence Barrister is supposed to put a stop to that nonsense, and point out that the Prosecution is making a prior claim of guilt—so prove it. I don't know about the higher courts, but this rarely happens in the lower courts.
I was lucky that both the policeman who booked me, and the prosecutor were honest. From the Public Gallery, I have witnessed clear and blatant lying by law enforcement officers which the Defence never challenged and Judges ignored. These behaviours have been so pervasive in my experience, that it must be universal - yet although the Secret Barrister touches on it, the Author appears to recoil. It is a burning coal too hot to handle for the Secret Barrister.
Throwing more money at the Justice System won't solve this form of corrosion. Unfortunately, I don't have any good suggestions of what will — but awareness helps, and a Defendant who is prepared to politely but firmly stand up for himself against the all too deliberate intimidation, including 'Contempt of Court' threats from the Bench, is far more likely to prevail than if he depends on a Duty Solicitor/ legal Aid.
It is necessary to have a good grasp of Civil and Criminal Rules of Procedure. Courts—rightly—will not give any leeway to self-representing Defendants who breach the Rules; but the Profession is often lax about enforcing Rules of Procedure against its own.
These are all aspects of the corrosion missed by The Secret Barrister. One does not have to be a fan of Tommy Robinson or Julian Assange to be concerned at several egregious abuses of Procedure by the Crown—even in the high public profile actions against these two Personalities. Abuses are even more common in 'low-profile' cases. Personally, I would never go to court as a Defendant nowadays, without arranging for several friends to attend as witnesses in the Public Gallery. Court Reporters should be a bulwark against abuses but, for reasons best known to themselves, seldom are. People often ask: 'What can we do to protect our diminishing freedoms?'
A good start would be to allocate some time to visiting courts and sitting in the usually empty Public Gallery as an observer. I have noted—Assange & Co., notwithstanding—Judges tend to be noticeably more diligent about their duties when seats in the Public Gallery are occupied by silent, well-dressed people. Judges have often sent the Usher to grill me as to who I am and why I am there. I smile and decline to be drawn, saying only that 'I am an interested observer.' It is amusing to watch the confused and nervous reactions such a response elicits.

18 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

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