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The lawyer who was mistaken for a defendant three times in one day in court has called for mandatory anti-racism training at all levels of the UK legal system.
Alexandra Wilson, who specializes in criminal and family cases, filed a complaint Wednesday and spoke of her frustration over the incident on Twitter. Her tweets, which quickly went viral, resulted in an apology from the head of the court service in England and Wales.
Since tweeting about what happened to her, Wilson said she has been inundated with responses from other black and ethnic minority attorneys who have had similar experiences. She added that the frequent occurrence of such incidents points to the failure of current training in the legal system that only focuses on unconscious bias or diversity.
In the past 24 hours, she said that three black QCs had contacted her to say they had similar experiences. “Something must change because how can it be that people who are sitting as judges are asked why they go to certain parts of the building?”
Wilson has asked lawyers and the court system to introduce much more ambitious anti-racism training that actively addresses discrimination in the legal profession.
Wilson said she was initially stopped at the entrance by a security guard who “asked me my name so he could find [my] name in list ‘ [the list of defendants]”. She thought it might have been an “innocent mistake”.
She was then told by a member of the public not to go to the courtroom and to wait for the usher to search her on her case. He had to explain again that she was the lawyer.
When he was inside the courtroom, a lawyer told him to wait outside and see the usher. Wilson explained that she was a lawyer.
At one point Wednesday, the clerk yelled at Wilson and told her to get out of the courtroom and asked if she was represented. She said training is needed to ensure that black people are shown respect in the court system, whether they are lawyers or accused.
“If a lawyer is treated like this, one wonders how the accused will be treated and if the accused will be treated fairly. There needs to be more and better training. If there is already training for staff, it is clearly not going far enough, ”said Wilson.
“I don’t think it’s enough to say: ‘I don’t have racist views and therefore I’m not racist.’ I think we really have to consciously fight racism. “
Last week, a Ministry of Justice report found that BAME people are “overrepresented in judicial appointment requests” but are “less likely to be successful.”
Wilson, whose cameras are located near the Old Bailey in the City of London, is the author of In Black And White, which highlights the problem of racism in court. He said more action is needed in all aspects of the criminal justice system, from policing and prosecution to sentencing, to eliminate discrimination faced by blacks and ethnic minorities.
“Black, Asian and other minority groups have emailed me to say they’ve been through the same thing,” added Wilson. “It is absolutely heartbreaking that this is happening to so many of us all the time.”
