A private conversation with an experienced lawyer can reveal plenty about the people who enter a courtroom. In A Lawyer’s Beliefs: True Stories of Absurdities from the Courtroom, Valery Stoyanov turns that possibility into a memoir filled with candid observations, legal absurdities and dark humour.
Drawing on more than thirty years in the profession, he invites readers to listen as someone who has witnessed the machinery of justice from several sides. It’s an invitation with a distinctly mischievous spirit.
An Unplanned Book With Plenty to Say
The beginnings of A Lawyer’s Beliefs are refreshingly informal. As his work slowed down, Valery began spending time writing. He sent some of that material to a friend as a joke, and the collection gradually grew through the addition of other “beliefs,” including ideas he had first encountered more than three decades earlier.
That spontaneous origin helps explain the book’s conversational character. Readers take the position of invisible listeners, overhearing a personal exchange. The writing allows room for dialect, irregular expressions and the natural movement of someone sharing experiences in their own words.
Twelve beliefs give the collection its framework. Through them, Valery recounts episodes from post-communist Bulgaria’s legal world, where courtroom proceedings and the exercise of power provide fertile ground for satire.
Bribes in briefcases and courtroom farce feature among the situations described. Their inclusion suggests a book interested in the behaviour surrounding legal decisions as much as the decisions themselves. Every official setting contains people with motives, habits and expectations. Valery brings those human details into view.
The informal approach also creates a sense of proximity. Readers can imagine the pauses, amused observations and candid remarks that emerge when a seasoned professional shares stories away from the workplace.
The Human Drama Inside Legal Institutions
Valery’s career has placed him in roles carrying different responsibilities. He has served as a prosecutor and criminal court judge, and his legal practice includes representing clients before the European Court of Human Rights.
That range of experience gives his reflections a foundation in the daily workings of law. The book explores justice through encounters with people, institutions and the everyday theatre of authority.
Its humour grows from this territory. Courtrooms have rules and rituals, yet the people inside them bring emotions, ambitions and personal interests into every exchange. Such circumstances can produce moments of startling absurdity. Valery uses sharp wit to share them with readers.
The setting is Bulgarian, while the author considers the beliefs relevant across Europe and much of the wider world. Readers may recognise familiar questions about fairness, influence and the uncertainty of placing an important outcome in someone else’s hands.
His discussion of Themis, the Goddess of Justice, captures that uncertainty through a memorable image. Equipped with scales, a sword and a blindfold, she represents judgment and punishment while raising questions about where the blade might fall.
This reflection connects the book’s individual stories with an enduring concern. People have long looked to justice for answers, and the risks surrounding its delivery continue to shape their expectations.
Valery also gives readers context for the accounts. Some names have been changed, while certain portrayals have been summarised or generalised. These details establish how the material has been presented and support the book’s character as a personal, conversational collection.
For readers who enjoy memoir and satire, that combination offers several points of interest. There’s professional experience behind the observations, an informal voice carrying the stories, and a willingness to examine uncomfortable realities through humour. The title itself leaves room for reflection: these are beliefs gathered through years of watching people navigate a system with considerable power over their lives.
About the Author
Valery is a Bulgarian lawyer whose career spans more than thirty years. His earlier positions as a prosecutor and criminal court judge contribute to the breadth of experience he brings to his writing.
He has also represented clients before the European Court of Human Rights. In A Lawyer’s Beliefs: True Stories of Absurdities from the Courtroom, he shares an insider’s perspective through true stories, candid commentary and sharp humour.
The book is available in Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon. The book is published by Dolphin Marketing Press.
A Lasting Invitation to Look Closer
A Lawyer’s Beliefs welcomes readers into a lively conversation about justice and the people entrusted with it. Valery’s experiences provide the material, while his wit gives the collection its distinctive personality. The result offers readers plenty to consider about the surprising situations that unfold behind courtroom doors.
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!
