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Top 25 The Secret Barrister Quotes (2025 Update)

The Secret Barrister Quote: “We deceive ourselves, our cognitive dissonance only resolved by our brains reassuring us that, in spite of what anyone else might think, we know we’re in the right.”

1. “We deceive ourselves, our cognitive dissonance only resolved by our brains reassuring us that, in spite of what anyone else might think, we know we’re in the right.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “And it is that faith in process as justice that explains and justifies my role as an advocate. It is what permits me to bat away with ease the inevitable dinner party questions – How do you defend someone you believe is guilty? Have you ever prosecuted someone you think is innocent? – with a nonchalance that belies the gravity of the argument. I am just a cog in the machine. Impersonally carrying out my role is key to ensuring that the delicate justice ecosystem remains in symbiosis.”

2. “And it is that faith in process as justice that explains and justifies my role as an advocate. It is what permits me to bat away with ease the inevitable dinner party questions – How do you defend someone you believe is guilty? Have you ever prosecuted someone you think is innocent? – with a nonchalance that belies the gravity of the argument. I am just a cog in the machine. Impersonally carrying out my role is key to ensuring that the delicate justice ecosystem remains in symbiosis.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled. Nor will we proceed with force against him except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.”

3. “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled. Nor will we proceed with force against him except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “If we are being misled, or misinformed, or even directly lied to, to what end is this being done? Whose interests are really being served?”

4. “If we are being misled, or misinformed, or even directly lied to, to what end is this being done? Whose interests are really being served?”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “Justice? – you get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.”

5. “Justice? – you get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “Our system operates so that unless you can prove to the highest legal standard that you are innocent, no miscarriage of justice will be acknowledged. It creates a legal fiction as to what constitutes a ‘miscarriage of justice’, entirely at odds with our common understanding of the term.”

6. “Our system operates so that unless you can prove to the highest legal standard that you are innocent, no miscarriage of justice will be acknowledged. It creates a legal fiction as to what constitutes a ‘miscarriage of justice’, entirely at odds with our common understanding of the term.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “To try to make sense of sentencing is to roam directionless in the expansive dumping ground of the criminal law.”

7. “To try to make sense of sentencing is to roam directionless in the expansive dumping ground of the criminal law.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “When we ask what sort of society we want, can we tolerate imposing the ultimate coercive sanction – permanent deprivation of liberty – upon people who we agree may reasonably be entirely blameless?”

8. “When we ask what sort of society we want, can we tolerate imposing the ultimate coercive sanction – permanent deprivation of liberty – upon people who we agree may reasonably be entirely blameless?”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “There is no excuse for the amateur, sausage-factory paradigm of justice and ‘that’ll do’ complacency that pervades 94 per cent of criminal cases, other than that most cynical political trinity: it’s cheap, it’s the way we’ve always done it and no one who votes either knows or cares.”

9. “There is no excuse for the amateur, sausage-factory paradigm of justice and ‘that’ll do’ complacency that pervades 94 per cent of criminal cases, other than that most cynical political trinity: it’s cheap, it’s the way we’ve always done it and no one who votes either knows or cares.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “Oh, and the horsehair wigs? They, like the black gowns which barristers adopted when mourning the passing of Charles II, are simply a relic of Restoration fashion.”

10. “Oh, and the horsehair wigs? They, like the black gowns which barristers adopted when mourning the passing of Charles II, are simply a relic of Restoration fashion.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “The magistrates’ court is the accident and emergency department of criminal justice: any moment, a problem will walk through the door and the prosecutor will have to deal with it blind.”

11. “The magistrates’ court is the accident and emergency department of criminal justice: any moment, a problem will walk through the door and the prosecutor will have to deal with it blind.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “But – and I repeat in the vain hope that enough choruses might carry the message across the pond and through denser skulls.”

12. “But – and I repeat in the vain hope that enough choruses might carry the message across the pond and through denser skulls.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “For me, the lesson of history is that the state alone cannot be trusted to find the truth.”

13. “For me, the lesson of history is that the state alone cannot be trusted to find the truth.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “If in so doing, I help to secure the acquittal of someone who is in fact guilty, or the conviction of someone who may be innocent, that is frankly not my professional concern. The jury had the evidence, fairly and lawfully presented and scrutinized. It was for those twelve neutrals, not me, to decide whether the state had made them sure of guilt.”

14. “If in so doing, I help to secure the acquittal of someone who is in fact guilty, or the conviction of someone who may be innocent, that is frankly not my professional concern. The jury had the evidence, fairly and lawfully presented and scrutinized. It was for those twelve neutrals, not me, to decide whether the state had made them sure of guilt.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “While the client enjoys legal privilege – and so I won’t reveal it to the court if he confesses his guilt to me – I cannot present a positive case that I know not to be true. Were I to do so, I could be hauled before a disciplinary hearing and disbarred.”

15. “While the client enjoys legal privilege – and so I won’t reveal it to the court if he confesses his guilt to me – I cannot present a positive case that I know not to be true. Were I to do so, I could be hauled before a disciplinary hearing and disbarred.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “That is a disparity of nearly twelve percentage points, or, put another way, you have a 23 per cent better chance of being acquitted in the Crown Court.16.”

16. “That is a disparity of nearly twelve percentage points, or, put another way, you have a 23 per cent better chance of being acquitted in the Crown Court.16.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “Free pro-victim slogans, inexpensive talking shops and circular expressions of intent will triumph over costly extra court sitting days, a better quality of private contractor or a properly resourced prosecution service.”

17. “Free pro-victim slogans, inexpensive talking shops and circular expressions of intent will triumph over costly extra court sitting days, a better quality of private contractor or a properly resourced prosecution service.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “The Law Commission, the independent statutory body charged with researching and publishing recommendations for potential law reforms, put it succinctly in 2015: ‘For a lay person to discover the law would be practically impossible.”

18. “The Law Commission, the independent statutory body charged with researching and publishing recommendations for potential law reforms, put it succinctly in 2015: ‘For a lay person to discover the law would be practically impossible.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “The state is told that, where the conviction it has secured against one of us is so undermined that no conviction could possibly be based upon it, it need not say sorry.”

19. “The state is told that, where the conviction it has secured against one of us is so undermined that no conviction could possibly be based upon it, it need not say sorry.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “We weren’t sure whether to believe the defendant or the complainant. We find the defendant guilty.”

20. “We weren’t sure whether to believe the defendant or the complainant. We find the defendant guilty.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “No funding to address the fact that, in two thirds of cases where the victim has alleged serious sexual abuse, the CPS can’t even afford to send a proper Victim Letter of adequate ‘quality, content and tone’.”

21. “No funding to address the fact that, in two thirds of cases where the victim has alleged serious sexual abuse, the CPS can’t even afford to send a proper Victim Letter of adequate ‘quality, content and tone’.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “You may well know a lawyer, or of a friend of a friend who’s a lawyer, who is fabulously well off. If so, I offer you an iron-clad guarantee that they are not a criminal lawyer.”

22. “You may well know a lawyer, or of a friend of a friend who’s a lawyer, who is fabulously well off. If so, I offer you an iron-clad guarantee that they are not a criminal lawyer.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “We preferred the evidence of the complainant, because she is the complainant.”

23. “We preferred the evidence of the complainant, because she is the complainant.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “An Israeli study of parole board decisions in 2011 showed that a prisoner’s chances of release receded to near zero as the clock ticked towards lunchtime, immediately after which the likelihood soared.”

24. “An Israeli study of parole board decisions in 2011 showed that a prisoner’s chances of release receded to near zero as the clock ticked towards lunchtime, immediately after which the likelihood soared.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “Between 2010 and 2016, the politically unimportant Ministry of Justice was required to implement budget cuts of over one third, the hardest-cut department second only to the Department of Work and Pensions.24 As it slashed court staff and closed magistrates’ courts with gay abandon – reducing the number of magistrates’ courts from 330 to around 150.”

25. “Between 2010 and 2016, the politically unimportant Ministry of Justice was required to implement budget cuts of over one third, the hardest-cut department second only to the Department of Work and Pensions.24 As it slashed court staff and closed magistrates’ courts with gay abandon – reducing the number of magistrates’ courts from 330 to around 150.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “But to bang again on this rusty, perforated drum, the primary cause that is identified by every person in the system, every parliamentary report and every purse-lipped auditor remains lack of proper funding.”

26. “But to bang again on this rusty, perforated drum, the primary cause that is identified by every person in the system, every parliamentary report and every purse-lipped auditor remains lack of proper funding.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “We can either keep rising numbers of prisoners in humane prisons that serve a purpose beyond warehousing, for which the Exchequer – ultimately you, the taxpayer – must pay through higher taxation; or we can shift paradigms and explore evidence-based policy from abroad that would see the use of prison radically reduced, and non-custodial, restorative and rehabilitative alternatives envisaged not as a ‘get-out’ but as meaningful components of a working justice system.”

27. “We can either keep rising numbers of prisoners in humane prisons that serve a purpose beyond warehousing, for which the Exchequer – ultimately you, the taxpayer – must pay through higher taxation; or we can shift paradigms and explore evidence-based policy from abroad that would see the use of prison radically reduced, and non-custodial, restorative and rehabilitative alternatives envisaged not as a ‘get-out’ but as meaningful components of a working justice system.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “In February 2017, inspectors concluded that ‘there was not a single establishment that we inspected in England and Wales in which it was safe to hold children and young people’.46 Prison deaths are at record levels: 354 prisoners died in custody in 2016. Of these, 119 were suicides.”

28. “In February 2017, inspectors concluded that ‘there was not a single establishment that we inspected in England and Wales in which it was safe to hold children and young people’.46 Prison deaths are at record levels: 354 prisoners died in custody in 2016. Of these, 119 were suicides.”

— The Secret Barrister

The Secret Barrister Quote: “A working paper by two economists studying juvenile court sentences in Louisiana between 1996 and 2012 reported robust findings that longer sentences were imposed by alumni of Louisiana State University following unexpected defeats for the Tigers, the LSU football team.”

29. “A working paper by two economists studying juvenile court sentences in Louisiana between 1996 and 2012 reported robust findings that longer sentences were imposed by alumni of Louisiana State University following unexpected defeats for the Tigers, the LSU football team.”

— The Secret Barrister

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