Justice carries enormous weight in people’s lives, and the stories surrounding it can reveal some extraordinary behaviour. With A Lawyer’s Beliefs: True Stories of Absurdities from the Courtroom, Valery Stoyanov opens a conversation about that world through personal experience, candid reflection and a sharp sense of humour.
Set within post-communist Bulgaria’s legal landscape, the book gathers twelve irreverent beliefs into a memoir and satire. Readers are invited to settle in, listen closely and discover what decades inside the profession have taught its author.
The Stories That Gather Around Justice
A courtroom brings people together at moments when the outcome matters deeply. Careers, reputations and personal freedoms may hang in the balance. Alongside those serious stakes, human behaviour can take surprising turns, creating the conditions for the absurdities explored in this collection.
Valery draws on experiences that include bribes in briefcases, courtroom farce and the daily performance of power. These subjects give the book a pointed edge. Its humour emerges from situations connected to institutions that people depend upon for fairness.
The twelve “beliefs” provide a framework for his observations. Each contributes to a broader picture of how justice operates among people with competing interests, expectations and responsibilities. The title reflects the personal nature of that picture, shaped by ideas and encounters accumulated over many years.
Readers interested in legal memoirs may find the range of professional experience particularly appealing. Valery has worked as a prosecutor, criminal court judge and lawyer. Those roles have given him opportunities to observe proceedings from different positions within the legal system.
His reflections also reach toward questions familiar beyond Bulgaria. He considers these beliefs relevant across Europe and much of the world, suggesting that the personalities and uncertainties surrounding justice can cross geographical boundaries.
A Reader’s Seat in a Private Conversation
The book establishes an unusual relationship with its audience. Readers become invisible listeners to a personal conversation, following the stories as they unfold in an informal setting.
That framing helps explain the language. Dialect and irregular expressions have a place because the voice belongs to someone speaking privately. The approach gives the collection a sense of familiarity, as though the reader has been welcomed into an exchange where professional formality has relaxed.
Its origins share that same casual spirit. Valery describes beginning to write during a period when work had slowed. He sent his writing to a friend as a joke, then added further beliefs, including observations he had first heard more than thirty years earlier.
There’s something engaging about a book that develops from the impulse to share a story. The personal exchange becomes the foundation for a wider invitation, allowing other readers to encounter the experiences and ideas that prompted the writing.
Valery also explains that certain names have been changed and some portrayals have been summarised or generalised. These details give readers context for how the accounts are presented.
One of the book’s reflections centres on Themis, the Goddess of Justice. Her scales, sword and blindfold offer a vivid image through which to consider judgment and its risks. The possibility of an uncertain strike becomes part of the author’s discussion of the chances surrounding justice.
This image fits the collection’s wider interest in human vulnerability. People enter legal proceedings hoping for an outcome they can trust. The stories explore the behaviour, influence and unpredictability they may encounter along the way.
Dark humour gives these reflections their particular flavour. It creates space for readers to engage with uncomfortable subjects while appreciating the author’s eye for the ridiculous. That combination supports the book’s candid, conversational appeal.
About the Author
Valery is a Bulgarian lawyer with more than thirty years of legal practice. His career includes earlier service as a prosecutor and criminal court judge, as well as experience representing clients before the European Court of Human Rights.
In A Lawyer’s Beliefs: True Stories of Absurdities from the Courtroom, he brings that background to a collection concerned with justice, power and human nature. His writing draws readers behind courtroom doors through true stories, sharp humour and personal observations.
The book is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions. The book is published by Dolphin Marketing Press.
Where the Laughter Leaves a Question
A Lawyer’s Beliefs offers an engaging encounter with the people and peculiarities surrounding the legal process. Valery’s conversational style gives readers access to a world shaped by serious responsibilities and memorable absurdities. Its twelve beliefs leave room for laughter, reflection and a closer look at how justice is experienced in everyday life.
We had the privilege of interviewing the author. Here are excerpts from the interview:
Thank you so much for joining us today! Please introduce yourself and tell us what you do.
My name is Valeri Stoyanov, and I am a Bulgarian lawyer and the author of one book so far. My professional career has given me the opportunity to see the justice system from three different perspectives: I have been a prosecutor, a judge, and today I practise as a lawyer. The only role I have yet to play is that of a criminal defendant, although I was once sued by a former client. I won, of course. Over the years, I have collected many true stories, observations, paradoxes and human experiences from the courtroom. Some of them found their way into my book, A Lawyer’s Beliefs.
Tell us about your background and journey.
Every practising lawyer is, at least to some extent, a writer. Behind the dry language of the law, there is always a human story. Sometimes, a single remark in the courtroom says more about justice than an entire textbook. I began writing down these incidents and observations, and gradually A Lawyer’s Beliefs took shape. The book is about both the law and the people who find themselves in its world: judges, prosecutors, lawyers, the accused and clients. It turned out that the courtroom was not only a place where justice is administered, but also a stage on which human nature reveals itself with particular clarity.
What strategies helped you achieve success along the way?
Everyone has their own idea of success and their own path towards it. I am not looking for a grand victory, just my own. There are no universal recipes for anything. I believe decisions should be made with the heart, rather than the head. If something does not work out, I do not get upset, because I know that we all have a plan, but God also has a plan for each of us, and His is the best. In my profession, curiosity, independence and the ability to look at a situation from more than one perspective have helped me most. Perhaps that is why my book does not tell readers what to think. I try to show them the situation, sometimes seriously, sometimes with irony, and let them draw their own conclusions. As an author, I follow the same rule: write simply, honestly and clearly. The law may be national. The human soul is international.
What message would you like to share with our readers?
“The justice system is the sick man of every society. It behaves strangely, and everyone hovers around it, trying to help.” You do not have to be a lawyer to take an interest in justice. Sooner or later, almost everyone encounters the law, sometimes willingly, sometimes not. Everyone has been, is, or will be a lawyer’s client. Behind every law, court ruling and case, there are people. This book is about them. I hope the English edition of A Lawyer’s Beliefs will show readers around the world that, whether the courtroom is in Bulgaria, Britain or America, human weaknesses, fears, hopes and absurdities are remarkably similar. Every heart skips a beat at the sound of that damn word, “justice”. All over the world, in both law and medicine, two and two do not always make four. That is why there are dissatisfied people everywhere, and one of them is surely called Donald Trump. And if the reader laughs here and there, all the better. The law is far too serious a matter for us to always speak of it seriously.
Thank you so much, Valeri Stoyanov, for giving us your precious time! We wish you all the best for your journey ahead!
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