In Your Defence by Sarah Langford
Dec. 30th, 2024 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Sarah Langford is a barrister. Her job is to represent the mad and the bad, the broken and the hopeful. In court, she must tell their story, weaving it around the black and white of the law. These stories change the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary ways, but for a twist of luck, they might have been yours.
In eleven heart-stopping cases, Sarah describes what goes on in our family and criminal courts. She reveals what it is like to work in a world of archaic rituals and inaccessible language. And she explores what it means to be at its mercy. Our legal system promises us justice and fair judgement. Does it, can it, deliver this?
Sarah Langford is a practising barrister specialising in criminal and family law. This absorbing and thought-provoking memoir looks at 11 of her cases (details anonymised for privacy reasons) to set out the limitations of the justice system together with how it changed the respective defendants lives and the lessons that Langford took from them and in the increasingly crowded legal market stands out for looking at the English Family Court.
The success of the Secret Barrister has led to a rise in books about the UK legal system, which in my view is very much a good thing as it serves to demystify the law and counter some of the risible alarmist headlines in the British tabloid press. What sets this book apart is that Langford has a practice that takes in both criminal law and the family courts, the latter being an area that was completely new to me but which has a huge impact on people’s lives.
The book is structured around 11 cases from Langford’s career. Langford is up front in saying that she has anonymised them, including changing details where needed to protect the subjects. There is an argument that this undermines some of the impact of the cases because you don’t know which elements have been changed, but Langford is very open in the Foreword about what has been altered and I think the spirit of what she’s saying comes across regardless.
All of the criminal cases in the book see Langford acting for the defendant and she takes in points such as false evidence, cottaging (which is a particularly sad story), the things that clients keep hidden and their impact on trials, conspiracy, an child pornography. The family cases involve child protection and domestic abuse. Langford writes in a way that finds the humanity in each situation without shying away from the horror and I particularly enjoyed the way in which she reflects on the case as regards her own situation, especially as she had such an interesting way into the profession.
If you’re interested in the legal profession, then I definitely think it’s worth reading this book because you do get a good flavour for the system and the issues that it throws up.
The Verdict:
Sarah Langford is a practising barrister specialising in criminal and family law. This absorbing and thought-provoking memoir looks at 11 of her cases (details anonymised for privacy reasons) to set out the limitations of the justice system together with how it changed the respective defendants lives and the lessons that Langford took from them and in the increasingly crowded legal market stands out for looking at the English Family Court.
Sarah Langford is a barrister. Her job is to represent the mad and the bad, the broken and the hopeful. In court, she must tell their story, weaving it around the black and white of the law. These stories change the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary ways, but for a twist of luck, they might have been yours.
In eleven heart-stopping cases, Sarah describes what goes on in our family and criminal courts. She reveals what it is like to work in a world of archaic rituals and inaccessible language. And she explores what it means to be at its mercy. Our legal system promises us justice and fair judgement. Does it, can it, deliver this?
Sarah Langford is a practising barrister specialising in criminal and family law. This absorbing and thought-provoking memoir looks at 11 of her cases (details anonymised for privacy reasons) to set out the limitations of the justice system together with how it changed the respective defendants lives and the lessons that Langford took from them and in the increasingly crowded legal market stands out for looking at the English Family Court.
The success of the Secret Barrister has led to a rise in books about the UK legal system, which in my view is very much a good thing as it serves to demystify the law and counter some of the risible alarmist headlines in the British tabloid press. What sets this book apart is that Langford has a practice that takes in both criminal law and the family courts, the latter being an area that was completely new to me but which has a huge impact on people’s lives.
The book is structured around 11 cases from Langford’s career. Langford is up front in saying that she has anonymised them, including changing details where needed to protect the subjects. There is an argument that this undermines some of the impact of the cases because you don’t know which elements have been changed, but Langford is very open in the Foreword about what has been altered and I think the spirit of what she’s saying comes across regardless.
All of the criminal cases in the book see Langford acting for the defendant and she takes in points such as false evidence, cottaging (which is a particularly sad story), the things that clients keep hidden and their impact on trials, conspiracy, an child pornography. The family cases involve child protection and domestic abuse. Langford writes in a way that finds the humanity in each situation without shying away from the horror and I particularly enjoyed the way in which she reflects on the case as regards her own situation, especially as she had such an interesting way into the profession.
If you’re interested in the legal profession, then I definitely think it’s worth reading this book because you do get a good flavour for the system and the issues that it throws up.
The Verdict:
Sarah Langford is a practising barrister specialising in criminal and family law. This absorbing and thought-provoking memoir looks at 11 of her cases (details anonymised for privacy reasons) to set out the limitations of the justice system together with how it changed the respective defendants lives and the lessons that Langford took from them and in the increasingly crowded legal market stands out for looking at the English Family Court.
