About Michael
Michael Challinger grew up in Melbourne and attended Nunawading High School and Monash University, where he studied law and Russian. He is a music lover and inveterate traveller, having visited over 125 countries. He has worked in law in Papua New Guinea and London and practices now at the Melbourne Bar.
Mostly Guilty: A low-flying barrister’s working life
Mostly Guilty deals with the workings of the lower rungs of the Australian legal system. It’s about the down-to-earth cases that happen daily in Magistrates’ Courts. It does so through the experiences and anecdotes of a low-flying criminal barrister. While the cases are from Victoria, the book makes reference to other states and has relevance and interest Australia-wide. The style is light, punchy and informal, with lots of direct speech and many funny yarns. Some of the book is tongue-in-cheek (and even politically incorrect) but it also makes serious points throughout. It’s entertaining as well as informative. Most legal memoirs are by big-shot advocates or retired judges. Mostly Guilty is different, and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Very Highly Recommended!
It is often funny. Laugh-out-loud in surprised disbelief funny. But never cheap laughs. Not at anyone’s expense — or no more than is deserved when the facts are made plain.
Challinger’s tone as author, and character. . . is often sympathetic, wry, and wise . . . His compassion throughout, for his hapless (and sometimes not so hapless) clients, and their suffering victims, is clear on every page — balanced with humour, and told simply and powerfully.
Very highly recommended!