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

I managed to read 100 pages before giving up. The format of the book (it’s first 100 pages anyway) is to start each chapter with a click-bait headline such as "NHS Death Panel kills baby" before "revealing" that the story is more nuanced. Does anyone find this surprising? Nothing was revealed that a quick internet search doesn’t pop up and the author doesn’t offer any deeper analysis or insights. In fact, the shameful role of lawyers in distorting public life and acting as assault troops for vested interests is tiptoed around even when they are named as parties to the stories. The book might have improved which is the reason for giving it the extra star.

In their second book the Secret Barrister delves into the legal aspects behind some of the politicians' and media rabble-rousing tropes that are rammed down our throats to influence us. They carefully deconstructs some major cases where the outrage of politicians and the Fourth Estate have been at complete odds with the facts, the 'Fake Law' and 'Age of Lies' in the title.While this all sounds a bit dry, it is done in an engaging, informative and witty style. The book has certainly changed my perspective on things legal, I only wish that Secret Barrister had been a history or Public Affairs teacher at my school 40 years ago. This is a great book and should be read by all UK students and people in public life - while it does refer in passing to international events and personalities such as Trump, the book's main focus is the UK and might well be less interesting and relevant to non-UK readers.Thoroughly recommended. *Bangs Gavel* (and yes, that's a joke carried on from SB's first book which is also an epic).

This is the book that many of us have been waiting and calling for over the last few years. There has always been a tendency for the media and politicians to put out wildly inaccurate reports on legal matters. But it has certainly got far worse in the last few years. This has led to the creation of two parallel worlds – the one inhabited by working lawyers and judges and the one built by those who loudly promote ill-informed nonsense - Fake Law.The Secret Barrister looks at some of the worst excesses and forensically takes them apart. Here are just a few…She* looks at the tragic cases of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans where there was disagreement between the parents and the treating doctors about whether to continue medical care. Both led to hysterical reporting which in turn drove groups of protestors to take direct action. There were even politicians in the USA talking about death panels in order to promote their own health care agenda. The Secret Barrister carefully explains the duty of the court and the critical importance of the welfare of the two children.Other myths are similarly confronted. She explains the purpose of Personal Injury compensation – often to secure basic care. So, behind the media noise about a cleaner getting £9k for falling over a mop is a worker who has suffered an injury serious enough to merit that level of award.The most powerful section, for me is where we look at the controversial topic of Human Rights which is the subject of outrageously inaccurate reporting. When Theresa May bemoaned that someone could not be deported because of their human rights she ended with – ‘The illegal immigrant who cannot be deported because – and I am not making this up – he had a pet cat.’ It turns out that she was in fact making it up. He did have a pet cat, but it was nothing to do with the decision. In fact human rights are our rights and their importance to all of us is rarely mentioned.Don’t even get me started on legal aid!The law is distant and complex to many. It does lend itself to false reporting and misunderstanding. This book is the most important counterbalance that I have seen. My only regret is that the book will mainly be read and praised by lawyers – most of whom do not need to be persuaded. Will it be read by reporters and ministers? I will certainly be sharing it as widely as possible and hope that others to the same.*The Secret Barrister is anonymous. I use 'she' because I imagine a woman's voice when I am reading the books. No other reason!

In the follow-up to the wildly successful 'Stories of Law and How it's Broken', the Secret Barrister casts their ire on the (particuarly modern) portrayal of law within the media. Those on the stand? Unscrupulous editors, lazy producers and malicious politicians. The tools of their trade? Linguistic obfuscation, exploitative, emotional media manipulation, feigned concern and vocational caprice. The victims? Anyone who prefers more rights to fewer, clarity over ambiguity and the truth over the convenient, enticing lie.This book is a beautiful addition to the growing literary rebuttal to the persuasive ignorance encouraged by those who would prefer us blind and uninformed. it is funny, informative, aggravating and hopeful all in equal measure. It leaves you heatedly disheartened. But it's worth it ... and it's better than Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy (unless you are training labradors).

For evil to triumph all that good men need do is nothing. Or something like that. This book shows how Labour and Conservative Governments in the UK have restricted access to legal aid, under funded the justice system and attacked the judiciary and the European Convention on Human Rights. The impact is that we have fewer rights, less access to justice and a court system which is creaking. Clearly and simply the author exposes the false assumptions and political and industry goals behind these relentless and incorrect attacks and shows that the narrative pushed by so many media including the Guardian that the law is weighted in favour of the criminal and not the victim is simply a lie. Meanwhile the rest of us stand around doing nothing to stop this false narrative get a deep hold on the public and political consciousness. I'd like to do something to reverse this but I don't know what to do?