News

A life at the Bar  

Reforming and charismatic barrister and former Bar Council Chairman, Anthony Scrivener QC, died on 27 March following an illness, aged 79.  

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) approved 15 new businesses as it entered the world of entity regulation.  

Criminal solicitors failed in their attempt to halt the Ministry of Justice’s plans to press ahead with the introduction of a two-tier contracting model for criminal defence work.  

Convicted defendants will have to pay fees of up to £1,200 towards the cost of their case, under provisions of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, which came into force on 13 April.  

Supported by UK Trade and Investment, a Bar Council trade development mission visited Kazakhstan in April to raise the profile of the English and Welsh Bar and explore opportunities for arbitration and litigation.   

Eligibility to be appointed QC should be extended to all lawyers who hold rights of audience in the higher courts, and not restricted to barristers and solicitors, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said.   

The High Court ruled that Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling, acted unlawfully in seeking to ban prisoners with a history of absconding from being moved to open prisoners.  

The Ministry of Justice acted swiftly to introduce new payment arrangements for publicly funded judicial review cases, after the Divisional Court’s ruling that the “no permission no fee” regulation, which limited access to judicial review, was unlawful and inconsistent with the purpose of LASPO.   

Chambers should be put back in charge of designing the pupillage experience for aspiring barristers, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) has said.  

In Future Bar Training, published in February, the regulator suggested that it should instead focus on ensuring that barristers have the right knowledge and skills at the end of the educational process, through the establishment of a Professional Statement. 

Barristers will be able to offer payment plans to their clients under a new partnership agreement announced by the Bar Council with Legal Cost Finance (LCF).  

The FCA-regulated service would provide clients with the option of paying for legal services by instalments on the basis of third-party credit agreements, while lawyers would benefit from full payment of bills on time through BARCO, the Bar Council’s escrow account service.