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Regulating the profession. |
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General Council of the Bar
- the "Bar Council" |
Normally referred to as the
"Bar Council".
The Bar Council has been the professional body for barristers in England and
Wales since 1894.
The Bar Council provides representation and services for the Bar.
Permitted to grant rights of audience and rights to conduct litigation to its members. |
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Bar Standards Board |
The Bar Standards Board is the part of the Bar Council that
regulates the Bar and is separate from its representative work.
The Bar Standards Board was set up
in January 2006 in response to the recommendation in the report by Sir David
Clementi that the Bar Council should separate its regulatory functions from its
representational ones.
It comprises eight barristers and seven lay persons. |
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New
moves towards openness |
The Bar
Standards Board, the barristers’ regulator, list on
a website the names of barristers who are facing a hearing, along with the
charges and time and date.
The information is provided in line with a move towards greater openness in
disciplinary proceedings.
The Board publishes all findings of guilt and sentences within seven days of a
hearing. Findings stay on
the site indefinitely if the sentence is suspensions of disbarment.
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£15,000 compensation |
The
compensation limit for “inadequate professional services” agreed by the Bar
Standards Board is now £15,000.
Bar disciplinary panels are also able to order a barrister to apologise to a
successful complainant, whether or not that person was the barrister’s client.
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Complaints |
Bar
Standards Board
Complaints against barristers are taken by the Bar Standards Board.
Complaints Commissioner
The
complaints procedure is overseen by the Complaints Commissioner who is not a
lawyer.
The
Complaints Commission has complete independence from the Bar Council in the
decisions that he makes. He is able to investigate and dismiss complaints if he
does not believe that they are justified.
Conduct Committee
If the Commissioner considers that the complaint may be justified, he will refer
it to the Conduct Committee of the Bar Standards Board.
The
Conduct Committee consists of barristers and lay people. The Conduct Committee
cannot dismiss a complaint unless the lay representatives agree.
Disciplinary panel
If the
Conduct Committee agrees that the complaint may be justified it sends the
complaint to a disciplinary panel for a final decision on whether the complaint
is justified and, if so, what should happen to the barrister.
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The Senate of the Inns of Court |
Can
discipline barristers and in extreme cases disbar from practising.
Will also hear appeals from Bar Council rulings. These hearings are used
for serious matters.
From the reign of Edward I Bar
discipline was the responsibility of the judges, in practice carried out by the
Benchers of the Inns but subject to the jurisdiction of the judges.
The General Council of the Bar was
formed in 1894 to deal with matters of professional etiquette and assumed
responsibility for day to day discipline.
In 1974, the Bar Council and the
governing body of the Inns, the Senate, combined to form the Senate of the Inns
of Court and the Bar.
A report on the Constitution of the
Senate by Lord Rawlinson QC lead to further changes.
On 1 January 1987 the General Council
of the Bar became the authorised body for the profession by the Courts and
Legal Services Act 1990.
The Council of the Inns of Court was
re-established separately.
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Bar is ‘self-regulating’
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Bar Council regulates matters relating to barristers. |
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Complaints Commissioner to the General Council of the Bar |
According to the 2003 Annual Report of the independent commissioner, complaints
against barristers are falling, full report
here |
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Legal Services Ombudsman
Web site, here. |
Dissatisfied clients can finally complain to Legal Services Ombudsman (created by the
Courts and Legal Services Act 1990) in cases where the profession’s own regulatory body did not provide a satisfactory answer.
For example a woman received £500
compensation for a comment in a letter from the Bar Counsel's Complaints
Commission, news story
here.
The Ombudsman is the final body for complaints about solicitors, barristers, legal executives and licensed conveyancers.
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Legal Services Ombudsman Report
2006
Report here |
The
total number of complaints received by the Bar Council from consumers between
April 2005 to March 2006 was 560.
This
compares to 455 received the previous year.
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Leggatt Report 2001 |
Suggested that the Legal Services Ombudsman ‘should be subject to the supervision of the Council on Tribunals’.
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Supervision by the courts |
Barristers can now be sued for negligence since the decision of the House of Lords in
Hall v Simons (2000).
Before this case, barristers could not be sued for negligent work in court as a result of the decision in
Rondel v Worsley (1969) but could be sued for work outside court
Saif Ali v Sydney Mitchell & Co (1978).
However, this principle has been
undermined by the House of Lords in
Moy v Pettmann Smith (A Firm) & Anor (2005) HL, where a barrister
advised her client to settle without giving her full reasons for the advice.
The client lost substantial damages but she was not held to have been negligent
by not giving him full reasons for her advice.
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Office of Fair Trading |
Recent report criticised the legal profession
The constraints on the ownership, management and control of professional firms;
The codes of conduct, for example ‘restrictions on advertising
and marketing’;
Professional privilege.
The QC system was seen as restrictive and the decision of the Bar Council not to grant rights to its members to conduct litigation was seen as wrong.
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Barmark |
Profession has sought to address concerns
about the quality of the services it provides through the Barmark quality assurance scheme.
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Women at the Bar. |
Make up 25% of practising barristers.
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Women earn less than men do.
Men reach higher positions.
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Women make up 7% of QCs; only one in 10 of newly appointed QCs are women.
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