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The Secret Barrister Profile picture
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19 Jan, 6 tweets, 3 min read
It’s encouraging that the crisis in criminal justice is getting the coverage it urgently needs, but once more for those at the back:

THE DELAYS IN THE CRIMINAL COURTS WERE CAUSED BY YEARS OF UNDERFUNDING, *NOT* BY COVID.

Covid has just made things worse. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-557121…
Journalists must not let the government evade culpability for the state of the criminal justice system by blaming Covid.

We have been warning about the huge delays, enormous backlogs and chronic underfunding for *years*. Right up until Covid came along.
Every time we warned, we urged, we begged, we wrote books - trying to draw attention to what government was doing to criminal justice, we were ignored.

Instead the public was treated to foaming nonsense about “soft sentences” and protecting statues.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-557121…
The truth, which I’ve said before and will say on repeat until they do something about it, is that @BorisJohnson, @pritipatel and all these self-styled “tough on crime” posturers are frauds. They have for years supported cutting criminal justice to the bone. This is the result.
Here, ICYMI, is an episode from the series we did with @Channel4News last year.

The backlog and delays have been with us for years, as the cuts became deeper and deeper
In 2018, every MP received a free copy of Stories of The Law and How It’s Broken. Including those whose response was to deepen the cuts.

Don’t let them get away with blaming Covid.

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More from @BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister Profile picture
20 Jan
I am currently prosecuting sexual allegations made by children in 2019. The earliest trial dates are in 2022.

This is not because of Covid. It is because you have cut every part of criminal justice to the bone.

Your audacity is shameless.

Fund the justice system properly.
It takes the police years to investigate allegations, because of your government’s cuts to police budgets.

It takes digital investigators years to analyse mobile phones and computers because of your cuts to forensic science and refusal to heed warnings gov.uk/government/new…
Suspects are left in limbo for years, “released under investigation” because your botched reform of bail laws - designed to catch headlines - had consequences that anybody could have foreseen. Cases drift as underresourced police forces are spread thin. lawgazette.co.uk/news/release-u…
Read 9 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
12 Jan
It is very disappointing to hear the chair of the @MagsAssoc giving evidence to Parliament and suggesting that junior barristers are lying about their experiences of Covid in the magistrates’ courts.

This, I regret to say, exemplifies the problem.

parliamentlive.tv/event/index/6e…
When presented with first person accounts of barristers being compelled to attend magistrates’ courts in person for no good reason, the chair of @MagsAssoc first blames me(!), and then says it is someone “enjoying themselves at our expense on Twitter”.

This is appalling.
By all means use your time in front of the Justice Committee to complain about anonymous Twitter rabbits, but don’t you dare accuse my colleagues of lying, @MagsAssoc. You owe them a public apology.
Read 4 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
2 Jan
You don’t have to commit a particularly serious crime to receive 6 months’ imprisonment. You don’t even have to be sentenced at the Crown Court - under Patel’s plans, sentences passed at magistrates’ courts, in conditions of abject chaos, could lead to automatic deportation.
Important to note that there is already a mechanism by which the Home Office can deport foreign nationals who cause serious harm or persistently offend, and who receive sentences of 6 months. But Patel wants to make it automatic, irrespective of harm caused.
The position currently is that any foreign national sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment is liable for automatic deportation. These plans would radically increase the number of people affected.
Read 4 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
19 Dec 20
*** JINGLE ALL THE WAY LIVE-TWEET: THE RULES***

This lecture explores the Christmas classic Jingle All The Way through the lens of English & Welsh law.

Contributions are welcome, but I'm perfectly prepared to tweet the entire film to a wall of embarrassed silence.
This paper considers, inter alia, how Arnie/Howard’s intrepid search for the perfect Christmas present might have been different had he, Sinbad and the whole gang been subject to the law of England and Wales.
Some basic rules so we’re all singing from the same song sheet:

As I am not an American lawyer, nor diligent enough to do the research, we assume that all activity takes place in the jurisdiction of England and Wales.
Read 52 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
18 Dec 20
It’s the last Friday before Christmas.

Still looking for inspiration for gifts for your loved ones?

Unsure whether they’d thank you for buying them a bestselling book about law?

Not too fussed whether they ever speak to you again?

Then #FakeLaw may be what you’re looking for.
READERS’ REVIEWS:

“Tasteless”

“Not my sort of read”

“Workmanlike”

AND

“This has put me off buying books on amazon. The cover of the book is all torn and damaged , this is for a gift”

HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY RESIST #FakeLaw THIS CHRISTMAS? 🎄🎅
RAVE REVIEWS OF #FakeLaw (that I haven’t even paid for) INCLUDE:

(Yes I’ve included a genuine good one just in case I’m actually deterring people)
Read 4 tweets
The Secret Barrister Profile picture
16 Dec 20
Some initial observations about this case, and in particular what the Court of Appeal made of the Attorney General’s application to refer these sentences as “unduly lenient”.

Spoiler: it makes uncomfortable reading for the Attorney General.
First, by way of background. I was one of several commentators astonished that the Attorney General, who has no known experience of practising criminal law, decided to personally present this serious case at the Court of Appeal.

It appeared an overtly political decision.
Comments leaked to the press confirmed this was a political decision, to capitalise on a tragic case in the headlines.

A “friend” of the Attorney General told the Express that she was pursuing the case *against* legal advice. She also took a preemptive pop at the judges.
Read 16 tweets

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