“Twelve equality objectives for 2013-14, set out in five priority areas, were approved and adopted by the Bar Standards Board at the May Board meeting – in line with statutory equality duties.”
Bar Standards Board, 21st May 2013
Source: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk
“Witnessing blatant police cruelty convinced the award-winning lawyer to make deaths in custody his life’s work.”
The Guardian, 21st May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“In his foreword to the consultation on ‘transforming’ legal aid, justice secretary Chris Grayling explains that change is needed to ‘boost public confidence’ and cut costs, which he claims have ‘spiralled out of control’. Speaking to the Gazette, he offers no empirical evidence that the public has lost confidence in the system. But he claims to have received ‘lots of letters and emails’ from people concerned about legal aid entitlement. He alludes to prisoners getting legal aid ‘to argue they should have a different cell’, and migrants receiving civil legal aid.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 20th May 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“Anna Morris explains why the legal profession and the public must unite to oppose the government’s attack on legal aid.”
Garden Court Chambers Blog, 20th May 2013
Source: www.gclaw.wordpress.com
“Depriving defendants of the ability to choose their own solicitor will undermine confidence in the criminal justice system, an official legal watchdog warned on Monday.”
The Guardian, 20th May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
At a time of unprecedented change in the way in which legal services are delivered, it has never been more important to gather the views of the profession about their experience of life at the Bar. The Bar Council and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) are carrying out the second biennial survey of the Bar, the results of which will inform strategic planning and provide information on the working lives of barristers.
The Bar Council, 15th May 2013
Source: www.barcouncil.org.uk
“It has been dubbed the stampede for ‘the purple lifeboat’ – applications to become judges have more than doubled over the past four years as senior lawyers seek professional sanctuary on the bench.”
The Guardian, 16th May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The Bar Council has published a document summarising it’s core case in respect of the current consultation in respect of legal aid. Read that document here. The proposals include the introduction of Price Competitive Tendering in criminal work and further fee cuts to solicitors (10%) and experts (20%) in family cases.”
Family Law Bar Association, 8th May 2013
Source: www.flba.co.uk
“The Bar Standards Board will extend the first QASA registration period to ensure that the Criminal Bar will have more time to consider the consequences of government changes to legal aid before registering. The end of the first registration period will now be 9 March 2014, which will be after the Ministry of Justice publishes its final response to the consultation, ‘Transforming legal aid: delivering a more credible and efficient system’.”
Bar Standards Board, 10th May 2013
Source: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk
“Lord Carlile of Berriew QC said that plans due to be put before Parliament by
Lord Falconer on Wednesday to allow doctors to help terminally ill people to die
would not ‘pass the public safety test’. Lord Carlile makes his warning, in an
article in today’s Sunday Telegraph, as the biggest combined assault on
Britain’s ban on euthanasia for a generation is about to be instigated.”
Daily Telegraph, 11th May 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
From Barretry, Maintenance and Champerty to Litigation Funding (PDF)
Lord Neuberger, President of The Supreme Court
Harbour Litigation Funding First Annual Lecture, 8th May 2013
Source: www.supremecourt.gov.uk
“Cuts to legal aid risk damaging the ‘essence of civilised society’ the country’s highest judge warned as he said everyone should have access to justice.”
Daily Telegraph, 9th May 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“In December 2012 Sir Geoffrey Nice finished four years as Vice Chair of the Bar Standards Board, the body that regulates barristers. After forty years in practice as a barrister, that included seven years working as an employed barrister in the UN, he will describe the differences between practice in a regulated legal community and practice in the UN system that operates with little effective regulation apart from what national systems impose on individual prosecution and defence lawyers. He will also review what he learnt as a regulator from looking critically at the Bar of England and Wales. The Bar of England and Wales and the country’s legal system as a whole proudly assert that they are the best in the world. Are these claims justified? If so, why was legislation thought to be necessary to regulate them more closely, and was that legislation wise?”
Lecture by Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
Gresham College, 8th May 2013
Source: www.gresham.ac.uk
“A subsidiary of the haulage firm Eddie Stobart has emerged as a leading contender in bidding for a new generation of criminal legal aid contracts that would deprive defendants of the right to choose their own solicitor.”
The Guardian, 8th May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“An end to the bans on self-employed barristers conducting litigation and sharing premises or forming associations with non-barristers is in sight as the Bar Standards Board (BSB) laid out the first stage of its major liberalisation programme.”
Legal Futures, 3rd May 2013
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
“Michael Turner QC has robust views on the proposed reforms which will have a considerable impact on access to justice, the profession, the public and have a devastating effect on the very cornerstone of our democracy.”
Charon QC, 30th April 2013
Source: www.charonqc.wordpress.com
“Charon QC” is the blogging pseudonym of Mike Semple Piggot, editor of insitelaw newswire.
“Lawyers in Wales have agreed to strike over UK government proposals to reform criminal legal aid. The Wales and Chester Circuit of Barristers has voted unanimously to refuse to sign up to a new system regulating the quality of criminal lawyers in England and Wales.”
BBC News, 28th April 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The Bar Standards Board has approved the handbook for the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 25th April 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“Justice secretary Chris Grayling has sought to drive a wedge between solicitors and barristers over the drastic plans to cut criminal legal aid and restructure the market, the Gazette has learned.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 25th April 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“Lord Justice Leveson has cleared the junior counsel to his inquiry over suggestions she compromised its impartiality by conducting a relationship with the lead barrister for victims of press intrusion.”
The Guardian, 23rd April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“It really is an excellent facility, and I already find it invaluable. It is particularly useful when I am out of chambers, in the UK or abroad, as it provides not only information but also all the hot-links I need.”
— Nigel Pleming QC