Profession

Peter Lewis explains how the CPS intends to implement full digital working and reduce its reliance on paper trails.  

By April 2012, the vast majority of our work at the CPS will be done digitally and our working practices will be streamlined. We are currently trialling various components of the new digital process in a number of pilot areas around the country (see map on page 29) which will help us learn the best ways of doing things before a comprehensive roll out next year. 

Sue Gethin speaks to Counsel about the challenges the FDA membership faces in common with the Bar.  

The vast majority of CPS prosecutors are members of the FDA, formerly known as the First Division Association, which negotiates on their behalf on a national level over pay and general terms and conditions. On a local level, the FDA assists members facing disciplinary action, bullying or harassment. The FDA will provide representation at internal disciplinary hearings or arrange for legal representation at employment tribunals as appropriate. The union also responds to national consultation on issues affecting members. 

Jonathan Sumption QC, a JAC Commissioner, admits he was initially opposed to written qualifying tests for judicial appointments. But experience has persuaded him that they are less imperfect than any reasonable alternative.  

Written qualifying tests are now an established part of the procedures used by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC). If you intend to apply for any judicial office below the level of Senior Circuit Judge, the likelihood is that you will have to sit a test at the outset of the exercise. These tests are unpopular among barristers for a variety of reasons, some good and some bad. You may therefore think it perverse of me to be writing an article whose main purpose is to persuade you to sign up for more. 

Peter Smith reports on the challenges and opportunities of life after pupillage.  

After the expense and effort of the academic and practical legal education, and with your heart set on a life of advocacy and self-employment, being rejected from chambers can be an incredibly disheartening experience. 

As it strives to ensure “excellence in advocacy” for all barristers in England and Wales, the Advocacy Training Council is finding itself with a rapidly expanding role as Charles Haddon-Cave QC explains.  

Advocacy is the defining specialist skill which sets barristers apart from other legal practitioners. The role of the Advocacy Training Council (ATC) is to help ensure “excellence in advocacy” by barristers across the whole Bar of England and Wales and to ensure they receive the best possible advocacy training and support at all levels. 

Felicity Gerry and Catarina Sjolin explain why they believe jurors should be made aware of the psychiatric effect of a sexual attack on the consistency of a victim’s evidence.

In February 2007, in Counsel, we suggested that the jury could be given a judicial direction on the psychiatric effect of a sexual attack on the consistency of a complainant’s evidence without the need for expert evidence (see “Inconsistent Victims”). Four years on, the signs are that Judges are starting to give an “experience shows” rape trauma direction. 

From 2012, chambers will be required both to set up and contribute to a “qualifying pension arrangement” for clerical and administrative   staff. Careful preparation will prevent an adversely negative impact  on chambers’ budgets, advises Neill Millard.  

For over a year, the Bar Council has been engaging with barristers to introduce “ProcureCos”, the model procurement company which will allow sets of chambers to contract directly with those who purchase legal services. It is anticipated that in the future chambers will need to become more corporate and to offer an enhanced and robust service that will survive any future due diligence requirements that Government may introduce. 

Adam Sampson reviews the first few months of operation of the Legal Ombudsman, the new scheme which handles all consumer legal complaints. Although it is too early to predict any trends, the number of complaints made about individual barristers was very low, he says. 

The run-up to the launch of the new Legal Ombudsman (“LeO”) on 6 October 2010 (only six months ago but it feels longer) was a time of high interest and high excitement. The arrival of a lay body to replace a system of complaints handling owned and operated by lawyers themselves attracted a surprising level of media attention, including interviews on the Today Programme, Breakfast News and The One Show. Behind the scenes, recruiting, training and deploying some 300 staff largely new to handling complaints in the legal arena was a major challenge, to say nothing of sourcing and fitting out a building and designing and implementing a state-of-the-art IT system. All adrenaline; all attention. 

The Employed Barristers’ Committee represents the interests of the Employed Bar. Major David Hammond, Royal Marines, highlights the breadth of roles carried out by employed barristers.  

The Employed Barristers’ Committee (“EBC”) represents the interests of employed barristers from all sectors within the legal community in a fair, unbiased and collegiate manner. It has worked steadily – invariably out of plain sight and often without the knowledge of its existence by the very barristers it represents – to discreetly raise profile, support activities and promote opportunities for members of the Employed Bar. 

Does the 2010 Crown Court Benchbook, which moves away from specimen directions to ones specifically tailored to the individual case, help jurors understand the summing up – or is it still like a foreign language to them? Should trial judges abandon legal language in their speeches or are written questions to the jury the answer, asks Daphne Perry

If anyone knows how to talk to a jury, it should be the experienced barristers who now sit as judges.