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23 Oct, 8 tweets, 5 min read
I’d like to thank the Mail for printing this rot and giving me an opportunity to plug both Stories of the Law & How It’s Broken and #FakeLaw, both of which expose the wild dishonesty of this claim.

Stories of the Law: amazon.co.uk/dp/1509841148/…

Fake Law: amazon.co.uk/Fake-Law-Truth… Image
Journalist @davidbarrett makes this ludicrous claim.

I challenge him to read Chapter 6 of #FakeLaw and justify his assertion.

Because - spoiler - the “study” does no such thing.

I’ll let readers form their own views on Mr Barrett’s journalistic abilities. Image
There’s also a ready quote from professional simpleton @tomhunt1988.

I’d ask Tom:

Why do we need to be “careful”? About what? What does this mean?

Legal aid rates are *fixed by government*, you permabronzed halfwit. Image
The article doesn’t merit repetition. Suffice to say that the journalist fails to provide the most basic context. His conclusions are unsupported, his premise is fallacious and he falls into every single error of fact and logic that I deconstruct in #FakeLaw Chapter 6.

Shameful.
Mr Barrett didn’t, it seems, read beyond the first pages of the report, namely the *giant disclaimer* saying that you can’t do the very thing that his pisspoor article claims to do.

That is rank dishonesty. Image
Oh look! Something else the journalist missed.

The justice budget has been increased between 2016 and 2018 in most countries with the exception of England & Wales. Image
And the kicker.

When you look at the overall costs of the justice system, England and Wales is BELOW the average.

“Legal aid capital”. Utter lies.

Full report here:

rm.coe.int/evaluation-rep… Image
Worth noting that this sort of #FakeLaw may be of interest to @IpsoNews, should anybody be minded to lodge a complaint.

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More from @BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister Profile picture
23 Oct
@davidbarrett David, you’ve read my book. You’re an intelligent man who knows that we have an adversarial system, unlike most other European states, and that therefore our legal aid budget is relatively high, and the rest of the justice budget is relatively low.

You chose not to include this
@davidbarrett You know (because you’ve read it both in that very report and in my book) that, because we have different systems, isolating legal aid and drawing the conclusion that we spend too much cannot in good faith be done.

Yet that fallacy is the premise of your article.
@davidbarrett You include context-free claims about certain criminal legal aid cases which ignore publicly-available corrections such as this: tuckerssolicitors.com/response-to-th…
Read 8 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
12 Oct
At the risk of giving this kind of #FakeLaw the publicity it craves, the reality is that thousands will read it, and I do think it’s important to put the truth out there.

So here goes.

More #LegalAidLies from the Mail... [THREAD]
1. We start as ever with a claim that the defendants “got £17,000 off taxpayer”, like they were handed a bag of swag. This is in fact the cost of legal aid set by the government. It’s like saying someone who receives a NHS heart transplant “gets” the cost of the operation in cash
2. Readers are invited to conclude that £17,000 is too much to spend on this very serious case. The journalist has not bothered to tell you any of the context that you would need to even *begin* to assess whether that cost is too high, too low, or about right. Such as...
Read 23 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
8 Oct
Tonight I shall be hamstringing the criminal justice system by working late on a serious case involving allegations of domestic violence. The file from the police is a shambles, but I will painstakingly do the jobs of both the police & CPS, and put this case together. For free.
For free? you might ask. Yes, for free. The hours, probably days, it will take me as prosecuting counsel to fix this case and advise on what needs doing - I don’t receive a penny for. If (as is common) the trial is moved by the court to a date I can’t do, I won’t be paid a thing.
This is how we hamstringing left-wing activists like to really stick two fingers up at the system. By working for hours on end, for free, to try to plug the gaps in the system created by @BorisJohnson and co, and try to ensure that people get justice.
Read 4 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
7 Oct
I want to tell you about a criminal case I’ve been contacted about.

It’s not pleasant, but in light of @BorisJohnson’s comments yesterday, I think it’s important.

It’s not one of my cases, but it’s v similar to many I prosecute. It involves serious allegations of rape. [THREAD]
In early 2017, Annie, made a report of serious sexual offences to the police.

Two years later, in 2019, the case reached the Crown Court.

Why the delay?

Because @BorisJohnson’s party cut funding to the police and CPS, causing a logjam in police investigations.
This is sadly commonplace. In fact, this case is one of the lucky ones. Many cases I deal with - especially involving sexual allegations - go back to pre-2017, because the police simply don’t have the resources to progress investigations any quicker.

But anyway, back to 2019.
Read 19 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
6 Oct
In 2018 I published a book on how politicians have broken our criminal justice system.

In 2020 I published a book on how politicians lie to us about the law.

Still didn’t foresee this. The PM blaming us - the ones keeping the system running - for the state of criminal justice.
For years we have worked ourselves into ill-health, forsaking our families each weekend and late into the evening, for free, to keep the criminal justice system hanging together. Because @BorisJohnson’s party has destroyed justice and we, unlike some, feel a sense of public duty.
We have sat with distraught victims of the most serious crimes, having to apologetically explain that there is no justice for them, because @BorisJohnson and his pals have slashed the court budgets, the police, the CPS, probation - every part of the system. We pick up the pieces.
Read 8 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
4 Oct
Gather round, children.

The Mail on Sunday is pushing some vintage #FakeLaw today, with a classic reheating of some #LegalAidLies in the ongoing war on asylum seekers.

Let’s take a brief look. [THREAD]
The “scoop” is that a law firm, Duncan Lewis Solicitors, has been paid £55million in legal aid over the past three years.

Part of their work involves representing asylum seekers.

Hence the headline of “£55m for lawyer blocking deportation flights”.

But look closer.
Firstly, despite the focus in the article on the founder, this is a huge solicitors’ firm with over 800 staff and offices across the country. The headline “£55million for lawyer” implies that this sum went to one individual. It of course did not.

Lie number one.
Read 13 tweets

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