Read on Twitter
Things I do that leave the criminal justice system ‘hamstrung’:
* cross-examine vulnerable children with skill and care, agonising over every word to ensure their fairest evidence is given.
* sit with prisoners who are suicidal and then lie awake at night thinking about them.
* cross-examine vulnerable children with skill and care, agonising over every word to ensure their fairest evidence is given.
* sit with prisoners who are suicidal and then lie awake at night thinking about them.
* deal with harrowing material every single day - both violent and sexual - with absolutely no support whatsoever for what this might be doing to me.
* cancel family holidays, miss funerals, skip medical appointments because a trial has run over and I prioritise the witnesses.
* cancel family holidays, miss funerals, skip medical appointments because a trial has run over and I prioritise the witnesses.
* represent children as young as 13 in the care system who have no parents and who rely on me - and trust me - to advance their case.
* spend my weekends volunteering to train and teach the next generation of lawyers. For free.
* spend my weekends volunteering to train and teach the next generation of lawyers. For free.
* regularly undertake work that I will never, ever be paid for.
* be willing and able to pick up the work of others at the last minute - the night before - to help if they have a diary clash to ensure witnesses and complainants are not inconvenienced.
* be willing and able to pick up the work of others at the last minute - the night before - to help if they have a diary clash to ensure witnesses and complainants are not inconvenienced.
* get up at 4am and drive a 180 mile round trip for a 20min hearing.
* sit with mothers and partners and children and friends and explain. Then explain again.
* watch the hearts of human beings break, in real time, depending on the outcome of a case. Finding the right words.
* sit with mothers and partners and children and friends and explain. Then explain again.
* watch the hearts of human beings break, in real time, depending on the outcome of a case. Finding the right words.
* receive papers at 5pm. Read them, prepare them and be addressing a jury by 10am.
* advise people - sometimes volatile, aggressive, dangerous people - to plead guilty in tiny cell areas on my own. Ask them if they are sorry.
* advise people - sometimes volatile, aggressive, dangerous people - to plead guilty in tiny cell areas on my own. Ask them if they are sorry.
* quickly identify the signs of paranoid schizophrenia, illiteracy, addiction, exploitation, fear and bravado.
* liaise with mental health workers and doctors to ensure public safety.
* liaise with mental health workers and doctors to ensure public safety.
* make decisions that could be the difference between a human being spending 15 years in a cell or not. Then wake up and do it again. And again. And again.
* do it all with no sick pay, no pension, no holiday pay, no HR department and no maternity leave.
* do it all with no sick pay, no pension, no holiday pay, no HR department and no maternity leave.
Someone has left the criminal justice system ‘hamstrung’.
But it wasn’t the lawyers.
But it wasn’t the lawyers.
