Y’day the PM derided lefty human rights, do-gooder lawyers for hamstringing the criminal justice system. No detail was given of course, just the PM indulging his taste for sweeping statements with no factual basis. Let me tell you what one such lawyer was doing yesterday.

My colleague was due to start a trial acting for a very vulnerable client. At court as they waited she took an overdose of drugs. He tried with some success to prevent her from taking all the drugs she intended to take.

She then dashed from the building and ran into busy traffic seemingly intent on killing or seriously injuring herself. My colleague intervened again to try to stop her. She then proceeded to hit her head against any hard surface she could find eventually knocking herself out.

My colleague stayed with her in the pouring rain for over an hour before an ambulance attended. During that time he was in contact with the ambulance crew who advised him what to do to make her safe.

Waiting in the pouring rain he used his barrister’s cloak and jacket to try to keep the worst of the weather off her. Eventually she was taken away by ambulance for treatment.

My colleague returned to court, soaked and dishevelled only to be told that the trial would not be going ahead anyway due to lack of court time.

I don’t know why the PM chose to attack lawyers in his speech. The serious issues in the CJS have been well known for years and result essentially from chronic underfunding over many years. To seek to blame lawyers was perverse and ignorant.

I thought people might like to know what human rights lawyers and do-gooders in the CJS actually do quite apart from preventing the collapse of a system criminally neglected by the government. My colleague is a hero and deserves some respect.The PM is ridiculous and petty minded.