News

Criminal law

Forcing someone to marry is to become a criminal offence, the Prime Minister has confirmed.  David Cameron described forced marriage as “abhorrent” and “little more than slavery”. 

The newly launched Bar Council training scheme began on 11 June with a week of legal training provided by BPP law school. This six week training programme replaces the Lord Chancellor’s Training Scheme, which ran for 20 years, and focuses on international commercial law.

The Bar Standards Board will be hosting a webinar on the new Equality and Diversity Rules of the Code of Conduct in mid-July – more information is available on our website: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk.  

Those interested in meeting the Chinese lawyers participating in the scheme are invited to attend the farewell reception on 19 July at 18:30 in Inner Temple’s Luncheon room.

The Law Reform Essay Competition for 2012 is again generously sponsored by the Bar Council Scholarship Trust.

The competition, which is open to law students and pupils, invites entrants to submit an essay of no more than 3000 words, identifying and making the case for desirable, practical and useful law reform. Prizes are as follows:

civil litigation

One of the first cases to be dealt with under the Defamation Proceedings Costs Management Scheme, under which costs budgets are prepared in advance and adhered to, has ended with the successful claimant facing costs of up to £300,000.

To Russia

Bar Council chairman Michael Todd QC and other Bar delegates headed for Russia in May to promote UK legal services abroad, at the second St Petersburg International Legal Forum. Todd said: “The fact that many members of the Bar of England and Wales are regularly instructed by Russian clients is a testament to the way in which in which the Bar is renowned internationally for its excellence and integrity.”

The CPD Steering Group, led by Emily Windsor, was commissioned by the Board to take forward the work of the CPD Review Working Group and to consider, in detail, the responses to the CPD consultation.

The BSB will shortly launch the 2012 round of chambers monitoring, which will build on the results of the 2010 monitoring process.

Profession

The courts can anticipate some satellite litigation next year as the Jackson reforms on cost and proportionality bed in, according to Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls.  Lord Neuberger, in a lecture on the implementation of the Jackson reforms, at the Law Society in May, said it would be “positively dangerous” for him to give detailed guidance on proportionate costs as the law would need to be developed on a case by case basis.