Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies - Hardcover

Barrister, The Secret

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1529009944 ISBN 13: 9781529009941

Publisher: Picador, 2020

Synopsis

Could the courts really order the death of your innocent baby? Was there an illegal immigrant who couldn't be deported because he had a pet cat? Are unelected judges truly enemies of the people?

Most of us think the law is only relevant to criminals, if we even think of it at all. But the law touches every area of our lives: from intimate family matters to the biggest issues in our society.

Our unfamiliarity is dangerous because it makes us vulnerable to media spin, political lies and the kind of misinformation that frequently comes from loud-mouthed amateurs and those with vested interests. This 'fake law' allows the powerful and the ignorant to corrupt justice without our knowledge – worse, we risk letting them make us complicit.

Thankfully, the Secret Barrister is back to reveal the stupidity, malice and incompetence behind many of the biggest legal stories of recent years. In Fake Law, the Secret Barrister debunks the lies and builds an hilarious, alarming and eye-opening defence against the abuse of our law, our rights and our democracy.

About this title

Review:

By turns eye-opening, damning and hilarious, the secret barrister lifts the lid on a legal system where the system, the politicians, the lack of funding and sometimes the judges are the real villains and the victims are all of us -- Tim Shipman, author of Fall Out and All Out War on The Secret Barrister

Dishes the dirt ― or serves up a slice of reality ― on what barristers do -- The Times on The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister can write . . . everyone who has any interest in public life should read it . . . this is a book of some brilliance, clearly explained, cogently argued -- Daily Mail on The Secret Barrister

What’s so powerful about The Secret Barrister is its ability to connect the dots...revealing a picture that is more a commentary on society as a whole than it is on robing rooms full of horsehair wigs -- Afua Hirsch, Guardian on The Secret Barrister

Takes the reader deep into the bowels of the criminal justice system . . . the message of this entertaining book is delivered with great skill...the book is at once a lament and a celebration . . . the justice system as not just for criminals and victims but for all of us - it is the symbol of our nation's humanity -- The Times on The Secret Barrister

Funny, frightening, frequently infuriating but above all profoundly human. As a sensitive and knowledgeable storyteller, the Secret Barrister does for lawyers what James Herriot did for vets -- James O'Brien on The Secret Barrister

Terrifying and occasionally hilarious... this is an eye-opening, if depressing, account of the practice of law today. Perhaps there is hope, but the author leaves us in no doubt that urgent reform is needed -- The Observer on The Secret Barrister

This excellent book will hopefully raise awareness of what has been, until now, a silent crisis. It is at once a vicious polemic, a helpful primer and a cringe-inducing account of one barrister's travails -- Daily Telegraph on The Secret Barrister

Funny, angry, mordant, social satire, reform manifesto – The Secret Barrister offers them all in this legal tour de force. Told through often heart-rending stories of victims and victors in a game of legal roulette, a quest for decency and proper standards of legal service shines through the bleakness. If the Secret Barrister has her or his way, it might happen a bit more often. Read this book, hope and pray -- Andrew Adonis on The Secret Barrister

Its stories of how the law often fails those whom it is meant to protect – how do barristers feel when someone they believe to be innocent gets banged up for five years? – make for gripping reading -- John Crace, The Guardian on The Secret Barrister

About the Author:

The Secret Barrister is a junior barrister specializing in criminal law, and the author of the award-winning blog of the same name. The Secret Barrister writes for The Times, the Guardian, New Statesman, iNews, Esquire, Counsel magazine and Solicitors Journal, and has appeared in the Sun, the Mirror and Huffington Post.

In 2016 and 2017, the Secret Barrister was named Independent Blogger of the Year at the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards. In 2018, the Secret Barrister was named Legal Personality of The Year at the Law Society Awards. Their first book,The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken, was a Sunday Times top-ten hardback bestseller for twenty-four consecutive weeks and a number one bestseller in paperback.

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 1529009944
• ISBN 13: 9781529009941
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400