Category: barristers

BSB’s regulatory assessment: the challenge of change – Legal Services Board

Posted May 29th, 2013 in barristers, legal profession, legal services, news, professional conduct by sally

“The Legal Services Board publishes today its assessment of the Bar Standards Board (BSB) performance in the legal services sector. This performance review of the BSB’s regulatory functions represents a baseline on which future regulatory performance can be judged. It also reinforces the continuing importance the LSB attaches to improving regulatory performance. ”

Full story (PDF)

Legal Services Board, 29th May 2013

Source: www.legalservicesboard.org.uk

Leading barristers warn over legal aid cuts – Daily Telegraph

Posted May 29th, 2013 in barristers, budgets, judicial review, legal aid, news by sally

“Dozens of Britain’s leading barristers have warned that reforms of the legal aid system by Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, will ‘seriously undermine the rule of law’.”

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 28th May 2013

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

BSB decision to stop former chief constable self-funding pupillage upheld – Legal Futures

Posted May 28th, 2013 in barristers, equality, news, police, pupillage by sally

“A barristers’ chambers which offered an unfunded pupillage to a former police chief constable has lost its appeal against a Bar Standards Board decision that the move ran foul of equality rules designed to stop ‘rich kids’ from self-funding.”

Full story

Legal Futures, 28th May 2013

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

New equality and diversity goals set out at Board meeting – Bar Standards Board

Posted May 22nd, 2013 in barristers, diversity, equality, news by sally

“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.”

Full story

Bar Standards Board, 21st May 2013

Source: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk

Leslie Thomas: a voice for the dead – The Guardian

Posted May 21st, 2013 in assault, barristers, death in custody, human rights, inquests, legal aid, news, police, reports by sally

“Witnessing blatant police cruelty convinced the award-winning lawyer to make deaths in custody his life’s work.”

Full story

The Guardian, 21st May 2013

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Interview: Chris Grayling – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted May 20th, 2013 in alternative business structures, barristers, budgets, consultations, costs, fees, legal aid, news, solicitors by sally

“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.”

Full story

Law Society’s Gazette, 20th May 2013

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Cut Price Justice – Garden Court Chambers Blog

Posted May 20th, 2013 in alternative business structures, barristers, budgets, conflict of interest, fees, legal aid, legal representation, litigants in person, news, rule of law by sally

“Anna Morris explains why the legal profession and the public must unite to oppose the government’s attack on legal aid.”

Full story

Garden Court Chambers Blog, 20th May 2013

Source: www.gclaw.wordpress.com

Legal watchdog warns budget cuts will damage justice – The Guardian

Posted May 20th, 2013 in barristers, budgets, consultations, demonstrations, inquiries, judicial review, legal aid, legal representation, news, solicitors by sally

“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.”

Full story

The Guardian, 20th May 2013

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Bar Council and Bar Standards Board 2nd biennial survey of the profession – The Bar Council

Posted May 16th, 2013 in barristers, news, reports by sally

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.

Full story

The Bar Council, 15th May 2013

Source: www.barcouncil.org.uk

Legal aid cuts prompt top lawyers to leave the bar for careers on the bench – The Guardian

Posted May 16th, 2013 in barristers, judiciary, legal aid, legal profession, news by sally

“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.”

Full story

The Guardian, 16th May 2013

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Bar Council Publishes Legal Aid Consultation Core Case – Family Law Bar Association

Posted May 14th, 2013 in barristers, consultations, fees, legal aid, news, tenders by sally

“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.”

Full story

Family Law Bar Association, 8th May 2013

Source: www.flba.co.uk

Bar Standards Board extends first registration phase for QASA – Bar Standards Board

Posted May 13th, 2013 in alternative business structures, barristers, consultations, legal aid, press releases, quality assurance, solicitor advocates by tracey

“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’.”

Full press release

Bar Standards Board, 10th May 2013

Source: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk

Peers clash over right-to-die ‘spin’ – Daily Telegraph

Posted May 13th, 2013 in appeals, assisted suicide, barristers, bills, doctors, euthanasia, murder, news by tracey

“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.”

Full text

Daily Telegraph, 11th May 2013

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

From Barretry, Maintenance and Champerty to Litigation Funding – Lord Neuberger, President of The Supreme Court

Posted May 10th, 2013 in barristers, civil justice, judges, legal aid, speeches by sally

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

Legal aid cuts risks damaging civilised society, warns senor judge – Daily Telegraph

Posted May 10th, 2013 in barristers, civil justice, dispute resolution, judges, legal aid, news by sally

“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.”

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 9th May 2013

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Regulation at home, but not abroad – Gresham College Lecture

Posted May 9th, 2013 in barristers, codes of practice, judiciary, lectures, legal profession, professional conduct, regulations by tracey

“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?”

Transcript

Lecture by Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC

Gresham College, 8th May 2013

Source: www.gresham.ac.uk

Eddie Stobart drives into legal aid row – The Guardian

Posted May 8th, 2013 in barristers, competition, criminal justice, legal aid, legal representation, news, tenders by sally

“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.”

Full story

The Guardian, 8th May 2013

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Barristers to have tools to compete with solicitors as BSB seeks approval for liberalisation – Legal Futures

Posted May 3rd, 2013 in alternative business structures, barristers, legal services, news by tracey

“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.”

Full story

Legal Futures, 3rd May 2013

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Tour Report #21: Podcast with Michael Turner QC, Chairman of The Criminal Bar Association, on the legal aid reforms – Charon QC

Posted April 30th, 2013 in barristers, judiciary, law firms, legal aid, legal profession, news by sally

“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.”

Podcast

Charon QC, 30th April 2013

Source: www.charonqc.wordpress.com

“Charon QC” is the blogging pseudonym of Mike Semple Piggot, editor of insitelaw newswire.

Legal aid: Lawyers in Wales agree strike action – BBC News

Posted April 29th, 2013 in barristers, budgets, consultations, industrial action, legal aid, news, Wales by tracey

“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.”

Full story

BBC News, 28th April 2013

Source: www.bbc.co.uk