Steve Hynes, Director of LAG, talks to CharonQC about the proposed cuts in Legal Aid (amongst other things). Talking about the family bar his view is that the government has “pushed it about as far as they are able to without causing serious damage to the practitioner base”. He talks about his annoyance that Jack Straw makes public speeches about legal aid only to knock legal aid practitioners, and the probability that one knock on effect of the recession will increase the demand for legal aid services both criminal and civil. Listen to the podcast.
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As I practice in the United States, I am not familiar with “family bar”. Is this simply another term for what we call family law? Or are there actually separate courts which are designated for family related cases only? I am in the process of obtaining a better understanding of the various legal processes found throughout Europe and other countries overseas. Any information would be greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance.
@lakeland attorney
Hi – short answer: ‘bar’ refers to that part of the legal profession specialising in advocacy (barristers). We have a split legal profession with 2 primary types of lawyers solicitors who deal direct with clients and tend not to conduct their own advocacy and barristers who are a referral only profession (limited exceptions) and who do not conduct litigation but specialise in advocacy and advisory / drafting work.
There are 2 main types of courts dealing with family work: family proceedings courts (the family limb of the magistrates court, which is a base level court dealing primarily with lower level crime and youth offending and which uses a lay tribunal with legal adviser rather than legally qualified judge) and county court (the main civil court with legally qualified judges). Family work is mainly conducted under the auspices of the Children Act 1989 in both courts and in the same building as non-family work, although often in a designated court room or area within the building. Whilst judges are required to be ‘ticketed’ to conduct certain types of family work the judicial pool is one and the same with that for civil work.
Hope that helps.