The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken

Citation

The Secret Barrister. (2019). The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken. Picador.

Chapter Summary

The Secret Barrister is a work of narrative non-fiction by an anonymous junior barrister who practises criminal law in England and Wales and is also known as a blogger. It was first published by Picador in 2018 and appeared in paperback in 2019 at about 380 pages. A review in The Times's legal supplement counts a dozen chapters; the sections below follow the book's overall structure and the topic areas described by the publisher and reviewers, not a chapter list.

How the Book Is Organised

The book is loosely structured to follow the life of a criminal case, from the magistrates' court through to sentence and appeal. It mixes first-hand accounts of the author acting at different times for the prosecution and for the defence with discussion of how the system, in practice, fails to deliver justice. The publisher's description presents the stories as a way of showing how the system is broken, who broke it and why the public should care.

Stories from the Courtroom

The publisher promises a journey through the legal system that is, in its words, darkly funny and very moving. The blurb poses questions such as how you can defend someone you suspect is guilty of child abuse, what you say to a person sentenced to ten years whom you believe innocent, what the law is and why it is needed, and why barristers wear wigs. It describes the book as both a first-hand account of the human cost of the criminal justice system and a guide to how the system reached its present state.

Underfunding and Austerity

The central argument, as summarised in reviews, is that the criminal justice system has suffered from chronic underfunding. The author describes crumbling magistrates' courts, repeated delay, cases arriving under-prepared, and evidence and disclosure problems. A Literary Review notice repeats the figure that audit trails show disclosure to the defence to be unsatisfactory in 87 per cent of cases.

Legal Aid and "The Innocence Tax"

The author is particularly critical of reforms to legal aid under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. The book calls the resulting position "the Innocence Tax": a defendant who is wrongly accused and denied legal aid can be acquitted and still be out of pocket for large legal costs which the state does not repay. The author also criticises the restriction of compensation for miscarriages of justice.

Who Is to Blame, and Remedies

The book argues that the system's flaws are imposed from outside by the state and not caused by the people who work in it. It pays tribute to police officers, prosecutors, defence solicitors, judges, court staff, probation staff and prison officers. It calls for adequate resources, for better public legal education, with case law and statutes freely available online, and for better education of backbench MPs so that they can challenge ministers.

Key Concepts

Themes Named in the Publisher's Description and Reviews

• Fair trial and access to justice: the expectation that a participant in a criminal case will receive a fair process.
• Chronic underfunding: the claim that the courts and the criminal bar have been starved of resources.
• Legal aid reform (LASPO 2012) and the "Innocence Tax": the book's critique of cost recovery for acquitted defendants.
• Disclosure of evidence: the duty to give the defence relevant material, and the failures the book reports.
• Public legal education: the call for citizens and legislators to understand how the law works.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Wide critical reception. Reviewers in The Observer, The Guardian, The Times, the Literary Review, The Daily Telegraph and legal journals such as the New Law Journal and Counsel magazine reviewed the book favourably; Counsel called it passionate advocacy of the highest standard.
• Clear structure. Following the course of a case from magistrates' court to appeal gives the reader a map of the criminal process through which the stories are told.
• Policy influence. The book was praised in the House of Commons on its publication day, and the Criminal Bar Association and Young Legal Aid Lawyers ran a campaign to send a copy to every MP.
• Balance of criticism and respect. It targets policy choices and not the people in the system, and it acknowledges the dedication of court professionals.

Limitations

• A single anonymous voice. The claims rest on one barrister's experience; the author cannot be checked, and the book is advocacy, not neutral research.
• A snapshot in time. It describes England and Wales around 2018. Funding, procedure and court backlogs have changed since, so the book should be read with later official data.
• England and Wales only. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems, which are outside its scope.
• Not a doctrinal text. It does not set out criminal law and procedure systematically.

Where It Fits in the Course

The book sits in the further-reading section next to two other barrister books. Sarah Langford's In Your Defence tells eleven criminal and family cases in a more case-by-case and personal way, while Alexandra Wilson's In Black and White is a memoir focused on race and class at the Bar. The Secret Barrister is the most policy-driven of the three, with an explicit argument about funding and reform.

It complements courses on criminal law, the English legal system or criminal justice by showing how the process works in practice.

How to Use This Book

The book is for law and criminology students, aspiring barristers and general readers who want an informed but accessible account of the criminal courts in England and Wales. No legal background is required.

A practical plan:

• Read in order. The sequence follows a case through the system, so the early chapters on the magistrates' court prepare for what follows.
• Pair chapters with textbook material. Look up the relevant stages, such as disclosure, legal aid and sentencing, in a criminal procedure text.
• Treat the claims as arguments. Compare the book's statistics and complaints with official reports and later reviews of the courts.
• Use it for essays on access to justice. The legal aid and "Innocence Tax" discussion is a ready example for essays on funding.
• Read next to the other barrister books. Combining it with Langford and Wilson contrasts system-level argument with individual stories.