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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.

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Interesting - In a Whingy Sort of Way

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 29 octobre 2018

Achat vérifié

First thing you will notice about this book - or rather the author - is that she very much falls into the the 'soft left' of the political spectrum. That's not a good or a bad thing because of course the UK is a democracy and all sides of the argument should be represented regardless of personal feelings or leanings.

The problem with it in this kind of book, is that it colours the 'evidence' all the way through the book. And after a while you get kind of tired of getting the same old argument that they don't have enough money. No one does because there isn't a bottomless pit. We all know that.

The other thing is that irritates me about this view is that clearly this author has a real issue with the likes of magistrates and the public being involved in general with the law. She very much comes across as one who thinks that the law should be reserved for 'professionals,' not the oiks such as ourselves. This is very much a view that I disagree with because the law affects us all and we should all have a say in it. Even if it does not necessarily coincide with the politically correct one that is now in vogue.

The author makes the point that magistrates for instance are far more likely to make a guilty verdict than a 'real' court and thus this clearly demonstrates that magistrates are all horrible middle England monsters. My interpretation, the last bit. She does not of course consider that the low level crime or cases presented to a magistrate because of their type, may well mean more of the people in front of them are actually ner'do'wells. No. The simply consideration is that crown courts are correct because less people get banged up whilst magistrates courts are wrong because more people are found guilty.

Its that kind of sweeping presumption that eventually starts to get on one's nerves. The other one being lack of money. And frankly not many people are going to shed a tear at our lawyers getting less wedge - which is partially down to cuts which one cannot argue is not a good thing, but also because so many people have taken up law because it was seen as a great job that the supply and demand reality has hit. Not that that point is conceded.

Gripes about gripes aside there is some interesting stuff in this and on balance I enjoyed it for the little nuggets that are presented. Did you know for instance that English judges do not use the wooden gavel? We all think we do, but that's because we've all seen so many American court room drama's and films.

So, a book that its slightly irritating but interesting nevertheless.

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JMay

More academic than the cover/title would lead you to expect

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 8 juin 2019

Achat vérifié

An interesting book, but not quite what I was expecting. I was expecting more specific case studies and personal stories from the authors experiences with sidenote explanations of laws/why things happen. In actuality, the author briefly mentions a case/person and uses it as a jumping off point to talk about legal policies and history for the rest of the chapter. Its interesting information that should be talked about more often, but not really what I expected from the title/subheading/cover.

I found it quite wordy and found my attention drifting sometimes. It doesn't have the same approachable tone that most mass-market nonfiction books do. I'm pretty academic (former teacher) and this felt more like formal study than reading for pleasure.

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John Sheldon

Great idea but very frustrating

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 10 juillet 2019

Achat vérifié

This book has had many good reviews and I was really looking forward to reading it. It started well. the subject matter is very interesting and I like the author's passion and ideas.

So what went wrong? It is a blog that has not been successfully turned into a book. It is very light on case studies and anecdotes. It is full of long, slightly patronising, lectures and diatribes. The writing style is long-winded, with very long sentences.

I got so bored and frustrated and skimmed though the second half. Quite frankly, I started to question her/his judgement as the advocacy was so one-sided. I would have appreciated more-balanced arguments and more comparative analysis of other legal systems.

So, not recommended. Too bad, as it could have been great.

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Kindle Customer

A little disappointing

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 30 juin 2021

Achat vérifié

It reads like an insider pretending to be an outsider. Overall it gives the impression that things could be rectified by more funding. It does not touch on the things that bedevil the people I know. Problems like two tier justice administered by The Hidden Hand. No mention of lawyers doing deals with the opposition behind the client's back. Most of all no mention of the Law Society's regulatory capture of the complaints system, so bad it has to be reformed, renamed and reframed every few years, and formulated so that it is virtually impossible to receive justice if you are stitched up. Definitely a limited hang-out.

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RainParade

Content is interesting to an outsider, but slightly turgid in places.

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 7 mars 2019

Achat vérifié

I like what the writer is trying to do. The story needs telling. People don't understand what the realities of the criminal justice system are and do not realise that it is being whittled down to the point where skills and knowledge are being lost and the administration of justice is taking place much more crudely, cheaply and at a lower resolution - and with diminishingly faithful results.
There are long sections of exposition and explanation - necessary - but perhaps just a little hard going and at times turgid even.
A noble effort and well worth a read - even if you have to skim parts of it.

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Mrs_Schofield

Not what I expected but...

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 28 juin 2020

Achat vérifié

Like many people who have reviewed this book, I expected it to be like "This is Going to Hurt" but the law version. The subtitle "Stories of the Law and how it's broken" is deceptive and makes it sound like this will be a fun romp through the law courts of England and Wales hearing stories of silly criminals who backed themselves into a corner. It's also very strange that my edition had a quote from The Observer on the front calling this book "hilarious". There are a few chuckles here and there but it's definately not hilarious!
The Secret Barrister is in fact an expose of the England and Wales justice system and how flawed it is. SB takes us from defence, prosecution, evidence, sentencing and explains how, thanks to years of piling on extra laws and budget cuts, the system often doesn't serve anyone.
Despite the book being very different to what I imagined, I mostly liked it. My three rating is due to the language being a bit complicated at times and I struggled to follow, although I think SB did a good job at trying to break down the law for the general public.
I liked that SB commented on press coverage of cases and how rulings and sentencing are so much more complicated than just "lock him up for life!". SB discusses how damaging being accused of a crime can be, how horrible prison sentences are, and how underpaid many legal workers are.
I read and watch a lot of True Crime but much of it is based in the US and it was interesting to discover the differences and misconceptions.
This is a great book to read if you want to learn more about the criminal justice system in England and Wales...just don't expect much hilarity!

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Michael Kaliski

What is wrong with the UK legal system - an insiders view

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 23 mai 2019

Achat vérifié

Something of a diatribe against the modern UK legal system and its' capacity to promote injustice. All the bad bits are highlighted with examples. Basically this book asserts that while the principles of the UK justice system are admirable, persons who are forced to undergo any interaction with the system only get the justice they can afford.

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C. Thomson

Not as good as I had hoped. Overly verbose.

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 1 octobre 2018

Achat vérifié

The content of this book is fair and outlines some of the unseen issues facing criminal justice in the UK at the current time. My interest was maintained with the case histories, but there is a lot of esoteric stuff that is not adequately explained.

Pace of the book was also middling - there was no rhythm to the dialogue and I became tired of the forced metaphors and language, much of which was obvious to me had all the hallmarks of the author reaching for a thesaurus to sound more learned. Attempts at levity also appeared forced and not successful.

That said, overall the book is well set and only hints at the deeper issues lying within our justice system; just a pity the writing was loquacious.

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Shane White

I couldn’t finish it

Commenté au Royaume-Uni le 27 août 2020

Achat vérifié

I’ve read books that are similar to this one in which the authors give the general public an insight into their work and I always enjoy them, but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this one.

The prose is often very wordy and made up of overly-long sentences that jump around from topic to topic and back again.

This, combined with the fact that the author makes the same point over and over without moving the narrative forward meant that I often found my attention wandering.

I gave up trying to read the book after the first four chapters (there are twelve in all) and I skimmed through the rest of the book, which is a shame because I was looking forward to it, but I got the message: our justice system leaves a lot to be desired.

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