The Bar Council is proposing that less than competent barristers should be referred by colleagues and judges to a remedial panel to bring them [back] up to standard, according to the Times.
I am not quite sure how it is envisaged that this would work and whether it is, in truth, any more than window-dressing to show that “something is being done”. It seems to me rather hard to judge whether some piece of advice or advocacy is really shoddy and below par, and as to advocacy the barrister’s immunity from a negligence action arises (in theory, anyway) from his freedom to present his client’s case in the way he or she thinks best.
And if someone is hopeless enough to warrant referral to a remedial panel, they probably ought to be drummed out of the profession anyway.
Related posts:
- Expert immunity revoked In something of a landmark decision the Court of...
