Conditions like this, of course, place the defence in a very unfavourable and difficult position. But that is what they intend. In fact, defence is not really allowed under the law, its only tolerated, and there is even some dispute about whether the relevant parts of the law imply even that. So strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a counsel acknowledged by the court, and anyone who comes before this court as counsel is basically no more than a barrack room lawyer. The effect of all this, of course, is to remove the dignity of the whole procedure, the next time K. is in the court offices he might like to have a look in at the lawyers room, just so that hes seen it. He might well be quite shocked by the people he sees assembled there. The room theyve been allocated, with its narrow space and low ceiling, will be enough to show what contempt the court has for these people. The only light in the roo

In the floor of this room to give yet another example of the conditions there there is a hole thats been there for more than a year, its not so big that a man could fall through, but it is big enough for your foot to disappear through it. The lawyers room is on the second floor of the attic; if your foot does go through it will hang down into the first floor of the attic underneath it, and right in the corridor where the litigants are waiting. Its no exaggeration

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Complaints to the management dont have the slightest effect, but the lawyers are strictly forbidden to alter anything in the room at their own expense. But even treating the lawyers in this way has its reasons. They want, as far as possible, to prevent any kind of defence, everything should be made the responsibility of the accused. No a bad point of view, basically, but nothing could be more mistaken than to think from that that lawyers are not necessary for the accused in this court. On the contrary, there is no court where they are less needed than here. This is because proceedings are generally kept secret not only from the public but also from the accused. Only as far as that is possible, of course, but it is possible to a very large extent. And the accused doesnt get to see the court records either, and its very difficult to infer whats in the court records from whats been said during questioning based on them, es