Lawyers got Wortman off with their mouths : silver-tongued courtroom eloquence is the stock-in-trade of our most expensive lawyers

Barristers’ Eloquence is their ‘Stock-in-Trade’

Even a normally ‘chatty’ defendant is well advised to keep silent and let their lawyers do the talking in court : that’s the job the barrister is trained to do well.

A wealthy client can afford the best lawyers, the best courtroom eloquence around.

Such a defendant is more likely to skate off relatively lightly than one who acts as their own advocate in court - or is so poor and undervalued by society that they can only get a poor lawyer presenting an indifferent defence.

Simply being a wealthy, white, Protestant, native-born, professional, entrepreneur - without being a police CI as well - is enough to let an unusually violent individual skate through our legal system for three decades.

All of those characteristics help : but the first is the most important: because Courtroom Eloquence is rare and Courtroom Eloquence doesn’t come cheap.....