Features

Toby Craig examines our relationship both with and within Europe and the impact on political debate.  

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War. That in itself has been the cause of significant argument, with Education Secretary Michael Gove leading the charge against what he sees as left-wing myths about the conflict. He singled out Blackadder’s characterisation of the First World War as a ‘misbegotten shambles’ as particularly offensive to what he views as a ‘just’ if ‘uniquely horrific’ war. 

One year on from its launch, COMBAR’s James Leabeater offers his views on BARCO.  

Barristers need to get used to considering and evaluating credit risk. Since January 2013 barristers and solicitors have been agreeing contracts with each other. For some, not much has changed. Under the BSB’s Standard Contractual Terms, for example, the solicitor is liable to pay barristers’ fees, whether or not the lay client has paid the solicitor. The solicitor takes the credit risk. 

Rhys Taylor, a barrister at 30 Park Place, Cardiff, explains how BARCO has worked for him.  

Sitting on my desk early last year was a print out from Carol Harris, with 13 attachments relating to something called BARCO, the new Bar Council escrow account. 

David Barnes, former Chairman of the IBC and Chief Executive of 39 Essex Street, offers a clerk’s view of BARCO.  

Under rules rC73, rC74 and rC75 of the new Bar Handbook, formerly known as rule 407 of the old Code of Conduct, the handling of client money is strictly prohibited for any barrister practising in England and Wales. But what does this mean to practitioners and their clerks in everyday terms? Well, simply put, whilst there are some exceptions, if the client has any rights to have any funds refunded which have been unspent, then you are handling client money. Avoiding this pitfall can be cumbersome and sometimes lead to you taking adverse credit risk or, even worse, losing new business, something none of us can afford in this climate. 

Our legal system is meant to be the envy of the world. Matthew Scott talks to Nigel Lithman QC about his battle to save the criminal justice system.  

Nigel Lithman QC, this year’s chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, is fighting what he believes to be a battle for the survival of a respected criminal justice system. What is more it is a battle that is having to be conducted on at least two fronts. 

Stephen Crowne, Chief Executive of the Bar, explains the new Bar Representation Fee and the works that it funds.  

I would guess that if you were asked to identify the highlights of your year, renewing your practising certificate wouldn’t even feature on a long-list. But it is vital to protect and safeguard the infrastructure which allows the Bar to continue to practise and develop. We want to make that process as smooth and as easy as we can for you, and to explain clearly what the money is for, and the value it provides. 

Adam Sampson explains the business case for good complaint handling...Not just because the regulatory rule book tells you to.  

Common sense tells me that taking complaints seriously, and striving for reconciliation when clients are unhappy with a service, is good for reputation. We are all consumers in one way or another, so we know that when, for instance, our energy provider tries to diddle us with a bill written in hieroglyphics, we will probably tell our friends and family to steer clear of them. That is, of course, unless they attempt to put their mistake right when we raise the issue. 

Counsel’s consultant editor, David Wurtzel, pays a tribute to the former Lord Chief Justice and looks back at the contribution he has made to the Bar, the law and the country.  

It was Hugh Davies QC who summarised Lord Judge’s tenure as Lord Chief Justice as “beyond the brilliance and clarity of his judgments and progressive thinking in the vulnerable witness area, it is his appreciation of the changing culture in how trials should work and the respective roles and duties of judges/counsel. Directions to the jury on rape myths; and understanding of modern crime such as cyber and organised sexual offending against children. He is often more progressive in all this than the counsel who claim to be ‘front line’.” 

Slavery and trafficking are now the leading and most profitable international criminal enterprises, outstripping both drugs and fraud. Lewis Power QC and Ross Talbott explore the problem and the steps being taken against these crimes.  

Today’s human rights abusers commonly hide behind entrenched cultural idiosyncrasy. Barbaric acts of stoning, the death penalty and child executions are said to have been carried out under the guise of cultural essentialism. Such arguments are even used to facilitate the rule of undemocratic regimes where parliament is powerless, the rule of law non-existent and corruption rife. With globalisation, the visibility of human rights abuses has increased worldwide due to escalation in cross-border economic, social and cultural activity. It is therefore vital that each and every nation or state claiming to respect the rule of law and human rights acts immediately to combat the colossal problem of contemporary slavery. 

Joyce Plotnikoff and Richard Woolfson explain the new ground rules for counsel and the recently launched advocacy toolkits designed to help.  

Counsel will need to “up their game” when dealing with vulnerability at court, thanks to recent guidance which requires greater fl exibility and advance planning. New Criminal Procedure Rule 3.8(4)(d) requires courts to take “every reasonable step” to facilitate the participation of witnesses and defendants. This includes ground rules hearings (GRHs), at which the judge, advocates – and intermediary, if any – discuss how a vulnerable person should be questioned, or how a vulnerable defendant can be enabled to participate effectively in the trial. Decision-making at the GRH is given a high profile in the Lord Chief Justice’s Criminal Practice Direction 3E and the Judicial College’s Equal Treatment Bench Book chapter 5, both issued this autumn. While GRHs have been obligatory in intermediary trials since Part F.1 Application for a Special Measures Direction was introduced in 2010, the new guidance emphasises that a GRH should be scheduled in any case involving a vulnerable witness or defendant,  whether or not an intermediary takes part in the trial.