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The Children Act - A lesson for lawyers
Criminal lawyers deal sometimes with terrible cases involving devastated lives and distressing evidence. However I always say the family lawyers have it worse. The reason is that even the worst...
View ArticleWord for Word & Measure for Measure - More Justice in Rape Cases
Sitting down with your client after they have been convicted of a serious offence is an unenviable task familiar to all defence advocates, even the most brilliant ones. One of the chief virtues of...
View ArticleFinal Warning - Time to Fix Warned Lists
There are three reasons why guilty defendants do not plead guilty before the day of trial. First they hope witnesses won't turn up for the trial. Secondly they hope the prosecution won't get its...
View ArticlePay Prosecutors Properly - Justice Demands It
When was the last time you heard a prosecution barrister speak in public? If you're struggling to recall a time, don't worry, they almost never do. A notable exception to this is the BBC's 'The...
View ArticleThe Truth Laid Bare - Mobile Phones and Sexual Offences
When something bad happens between two people in a locked room only those two people can ever know for sure what happened. That is the central, simple and fiendish problem that bedevils the vast...
View ArticleVictim Personal Statements - The ins and outs
Marie Rimmer MP is in the news following criticism by her of edits made to a victim personal statement during the sentencing of a man sentenced to imprisonment for causing the death of a 4 year old...
View ArticleJuries abjured - Why MPs should press pause before pressing tweet
When you start out as a barrister it strangely takes a very long time to learn to speak normally in court. Very experienced and able barristers are able to conduct themselves as if in conversation....
View ArticlePrivilege Part 3
In Lindsay Anderson's classic film If... of 1968 there is a scene in which a wide eyed new boy called Jute undergoes a test in which he is quizzed on school slang by boys in the year above. When he...
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An interview with Kieron Quirke writer of BBC series 'Defending the Guilty'
Kieron Quirke was a theatre critic for the Evening Standard before he made it as a TV writer. His first show on TV was the cult mystery soap Trinity, created with Robin French. He and Robin then had a...
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Decisions, Decisions - The Barrister's Burden
Google reliably informs me that there are 1.5 billion websites in the world. How many of those have you visited? On a daily basis how many websites do you use? 5, maybe 10. 1.5 billion is not...
View ArticleDaemons of the Bar
When a barrister is new everything is new including every opponent. As you get skittishly to your feet for the first time the concept of an opponent takes some getting used to and can result in an...
View ArticleThe revealing lens - Let the cameras in
With the exception of members of the Royal Family few people in society have more cause to distrust the media than Her Majesty's Judges. Convention means that they have historically been obligated to...
View ArticleCorona Caught to Crown Court - Sick Criminals?
It is surely only a matter of days before the various ministries start to reveal their contingency planning for the full viral onslaught and, ominously, probably only a short period thereafter before...
View ArticleDemand a New Normal - Sort Out England's Courts
When I started as a barrister, in the 21st century, I along with the other newbies received a pep talk on dress and appearance. Except this wasn't a pep talk it was the 10 Commandments. Highlights were...
View ArticleBarred from the Bar - strait is the gate and narrow the way to pupillage
The Bar is not for everyone and not everyone is for the Bar. Ostensibly it should be heartening that there is such a profusion of candidates for pupillage but sometimes when I see the metaphorical...
View ArticleJustice Calls Family Enthralls
I've never been handcuffed. An unsurprising statement from a barrister you might think but more than you may guess have seen the back seat of a police car. Often people fight violently when being...
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Video Thrilled The Criminal Bar?
Except that definitely does not seem to be the case. The usual place barristers gossip is the robing room but these days if you want to test the view of the Bar on virtual hearings it has to be via...
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Jury Trial Must Stay Awhile
Desperate times call for desperate measures and desperate men make desperate decisions. If you had told me at the start of the year that there was a very real prospect that by the end of the year we...
View ArticleUberrima Fides - Full Disclosure
This is a legal doctrine of particular application in relation to insurance contracts. It is Latin for 'utmost good faith', in plain English when you apply for insurance it's all cards on the table or...
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I May Destroy You - A Criminal Lawyer's Perspective
It was almost mocking of the BBC, as the UK staggered into the final weeks of lockdown, to launch a show so fizzing with the excitement and potential of a night out. Just as the nation was beginning to...
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