I’ve been scrolling through Twitter comments on posts about “activist lawyers” representing migrants and about legal aid being paid to criminal defence lawyers in the Andrew Harper case. 1/4

Most of the angry, outraged comments are from people who are clearly misinformed and don’t understand how the law and our legal system work. Law is complicated so this isn’t a criticism, just an observation. 2/4

Their misunderstanding comes from (or is at least increased by) the cynicism, nastiness and deliberate twisting of facts portrayed by many media sources. 3/4

Surely the time has come to teach the basics of our law and legal system in school. People might be less angry and less outraged if they understood a bit more. It would be much harder for our press and government to lie to us if people understood the law a little better. 4/4