Your reputation is everything

Once a barrister loses his or her reputation for honesty and integrity they are essentially finished. This is the case whether or not the circumstances in which that reputation is lost lead to formal disbarment proceedings or not.

Constance Briscoe is a successful barrister who also sits as a recorder (part-time judge). In January 2006 her memoirs were brought out, entitled "Ugly". They have sold very well. It is essentially a tale of childhood abuse in the sense of being beaten, neglected and suffering cruel and hurtful comments from her mother. This included ridiculing her appearance and refusing to have her school photographs saying there was no point having school photographs of such an ugly child. Eventually, after lots of cruel treatment outlined in the book, she was effectively abandoned at 14. Despite all of this she managed to succeed in her education and go on to have a professional career. The book was intended to catalogue what had happened to her and act as an inspiration for those suffering neglect or abuse. In many respects it is about making sure you take charge of your own destiny regardless of what has happened to you.

However her mother, Carmen Briscoe-Mitchell, dismissed all this as fantasy and at odds with the reality of a loving family. She sued her daughter and the publisher for libel. They both defended on the grounds that what was stated in the book were truthful facts (what is known as pleading "justification", which means that the defendants had to show that what was said in the book was true rather than it being for the mother to prove that what was said was false). Constance Briscoe intended to resign from the Bar if she lost the case on the basis that it was the only honourable thing to do. If the jury had found that she was telling lies and was a fantasist, her position would have been untenable, and understandably she would not have wanted to have a career which could never be the career she had had before. In addition of course she was facing the risk if she lost of her memoirs been discredited, as well as a potentially substantial award of libel damages. Essentially everything was on the line.

Nor could she be convinced that she would succeed. No experienced barrister would ever assume that the mere fact that you were telling the truth meant that you would inevitably succeed in court. In addition the sister she had expected to give evidence in support became unavailable, and her mother had convinced various siblings to give evidence in support of her claim that this was all fantasy. It was only shortly before trial that Ms Briscoe obtained extremely useful social services files from the time.

The trial took place before Mr Justice Tugendhat and a jury. Ms Briscoe was in the unusual situation of giving evidence rather than either sitting in judgment or cross examining witnesses. Needless to say giving evidence about such matters must have been extremely difficult. Amongst the things in her evidence she recalled being called by her mother was "dirty little whore" and amongst the mistreatment were repeated beatings for bedwetting. She told how this drove her towards attempted suicide. Having heard all of the evidence, the jury unanimously found in favour of Ms Briscoe hence finding that what she had stated was true.

This was an unusual and amazing case. However it illustrates that for any barrister, when their reputation is put at issue, their career is at stake as well.