News

Salary and reluctance to make Circuit visits deter potential High Court judges, but the prestige of appointment is still a major draw. 

His Honour Judge Goolam Meeran, President of the Employment Tribunals, received a knighthood in the New Year Honours list.

Aid agency CARE International is appealing for volunteers to take part in its CARE 3 Peaks Challenge supported by Law and More.

The Commission is making no secret of the fact that it intends to re-issue its proposal for a Framework Decision on minimum procedural safeguards for suspects and defendants in criminal cases. The Swedish Presidency of the Council (second half of 2009) is saying that it will try hard to broker Council agreement. 

A proposed single advocacy fee for barristers and solicitors in family cases would overpay less difficult cases and underpay more complex cases, barristers have warned. 

The Bar Council will contribute to a review of social mobility led by MP Alan Milburn, designed to champion the prospects of state educated candidates seeking to enter the professions. 

Towards the end of 2008, the Commission’s years of preparatory work culminated in its issuing a Green Paper on Consumer Collective redress. The deadline for responses is 1 March 2009. The Bar is responding. See: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/redress_cons/greenpaper_en.pdf 

There is a clear overlap with aspects of the work flowing from the Commission’s April 2008 White Paper on damages in antitrust cases. Despite the push from the EP to advance the two together, the Commission may yet issue a proposal on collective redress limited to the antitrust field in the first half of this year. 

At the end of 2008, the JHA Council adopted a report on the Common Frame of Reference for European contract law (“CFR”), reiterating its April 2008 position that the CFR would be a non-binding legal instrument, shaped as a set of guidelines to be used by lawmakers at Community level, on a voluntary basis, as a common source of inspiration or reference in the lawmaking process. See:
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/08/st15/st15306.en08.pdf
The European Commission is expected to issue a White Paper in 2009 setting out its plans, including what it is keeping of the Academic CFR, finalised in 2008. 

The Council has adopted a Decision approving the conclusion of a new Lugano Convention on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, bringing the rules of the Lugano Convention into line with those of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 (Brussels I) in order to achieve the same level of circulation of judgments between the EU Member States and the EFTA States concerned. 

Secondment: 2-3 days a week, 12 months duration starting February/March 2009 (daily rate payable, dependent on seniority/experience) The Bar Standards Board is currently considering the impact of the Legal Services Act 2007 on the provision of legal services. In particular, the Board is focussing on how barristers who wish to work in the new business arrangements proposed under the Act should be regulated. 

The Board has a comprehensive programme of work over the next 12 months and wishes to ensure that it has available the right resources and expertise for the effective completion of this important work. The Board therefore seeks expressions of interest from senior practice managers/chambers’ directors or equivalent who would be interested in contributing to the Board’s development of policy and a new regulatory framework in the light of the Act.