News

The Bar Council has maintained the status quo in relation to court attire in its Revised Guidance on Court Dress which was issued by the Chairman of the Bar in June 2009 and sent to all Heads of Chambers. The revised guidance follows extensive consultation with the Bar. For further information, see the next issue of Counsel.

THE Bar Council has received reports that Chambers are being approached by a well established company who introduce clients to solicitors in return for a referral fee (15% of profit costs). The company is now looking to enter in to a similar arrangement with barristers doing public access work. 

Barristers are reminded of the provisions of paragraph 307(e) of the Code of Conduct which prohibits a barrister from making any payment( other than a payment for advertising or publicity permitted by the Code or remuneration to staff) to any person for the purpose of procuring instructions. However, it is permissible for the lay client to pay a fee to the a company in order to be introduced to a public access barrister, provided that no money changes hands between the public access barrister and the company for the referral. 

Lord Clarke, the Master of the Rolls, has urged members of the judiciary to support Lord Justice Jackson’s preliminary review of civil costs and costs management pilot in Birmingham. The aim is to reduce costs and “realise the Woolfian dream”, he said in a speech to the Designated Civil Judges’ Conference in June. He also expressed a hope that costs management would soon be piloted in defamation cases. 

“First and foremost the CPS has created a platform on which it can aspire to a wider range of high quality advocacy in the generality of cases” is a conclusion of the first thematic review of prosecution advocacy in the Crown and magistrates’ courts in nine years.  

SPEAKING at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks (IBC), Desmond Browne QC, the Chairman of the Bar, called for creative solutions to the current dire predicament of the publicly funded bar, and praised clerks and practice managers for their constructive thinking in this area. He criticised the Government’s continued “efficiency savings”, which create advice deserts for both solicitors and barristers, highlighting the recent King’s College study on family practitioners as evidence of the impact cuts have had on the family bar. 

In his speech, Desmond Browne QC urged the Legal Services Commission to adopt a more sensible approach to negotiations over family fees, as it had previously over Very High Cost Cases. He invited the audience to consider two possible solutions to the issue of access to legal representation, direct access and block contracting, both of which would have a significant impact on chambers. Providing an update to chambers on the Bar Council’s work in relation to Jackson LJ’s review of civil litigation costs, he advised those present to ensure chambers are fully briefed on the latest developments in the debate over conditional fee arrangements and CLAFs. 

Child witnesses in Crown Court sex abuse and violence cases are waiting for more than a year to give evidence, despite government promises to the contrary. 

In June, the Council formally asked the ECJ for a ruling on the compatibility with the EC Treaty of a possible future Agreement creating a Unified Patent Litigation System (“UPLS”). The incoming Swedish EU Presidency will support this. 

http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/indprop/docs/patent/recommendation_sec09-330_en.pdf 

The BSB held its annual Bar Vocational Course (BVC) Conference on 9 and 10 July at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate. The event, in its eleventh year, was opened by Baroness Ruth Deech, Chair of the Bar Standards Board. The conference placed great emphasis on the future of barrister training and Derek Wood QC - Chair of the BSB Pupillage Review Working Party, talked about the new Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), which will replace the BVC in 2010. There was also a session titled ‘The Evolution of the Bar Course: where next?’ conducted by Nigel Cooper - Vice-Chairman of the BSB Education & Training Committee and Dr Valerie Shrimplin – Head of Education Standards BSB. 

Olav Ernstzen – member of the Bar Council Disability Sub-Group and Jane Rumens – Royal National Institute for the Blind, facilitated a BVC accessibility training workshop. Other speakers at the event included: Mandie Lavin – Director BSB, Dr John Carrier – Chairman Education & Training Committee, James Welsh – BPP Law School, Jill Frances – College of Law, Colin McCaul QC, Patrick Maddams – Sub-Treasurer Inner Temple, Tom Macdonald – King’s Inns, Simon Monty QC – Chair of BSB Qualifications Committee and Nigel Waddington – College of Law. 

ACCESS to justice is at risk as the Government ploughs on with its reckless approach to Best Value Tendering said the Law Society, the Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association as they submitted their responses to the Legal Services Commission's consultation paper on Best Value Tendering (BVT) for certain legal aid services. The Law Society, the Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association are all gravely concerned about BVT as currently proposed by the LSC. 

The consultation paper was issued in March 2009, and proposes a limited BVT scheme which would cover lower crime work in police stations and the Magistrates' Courts. This would probably be extended should it prove successful. 

The Union of International Lawyers, of the International Criminal Bar Association is organising a seminar about the defence before the international criminal courts on 11th and 12th September 2009. This seminar will deal with the questions relating to the functioning of these jurisdictions, their procedural rules, the evolution of their jurisprudence, and their future from a political point of view as well as a legal one.