h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Who does what in the UK Legal System - A3306485
Author: Orange_Squash - U900298

Have tried to cover everything.
Orange_Squash

Hey Orange Squash, nice entry.

Just a few changes/corrections needed I think:

* "A barrister are legal advisers and generally argues cases" (under "barristers") should probably be "Barristers are legal advisers and advocates"

* "The current Lord Chancellor is Lord Irvine of Lairg." - It was until last year, now it's "Baron Falconer of Thoroton"

* "The Law Lords in ordinary are the Lords of appeal, commonly called the “Law Lords”" should probably be "There are 12 judges that sit as the final appeal court of the UK. These are the "Lords of Appeal in Ordinary"Commonly called the "Law Lords" and they sit in the House of Lords to decide appeals from the lower courts (usually from the Court of Appeal but sometimes straight from the High Court."

There are a few more than the above corrections to mention, so I'll give this entry a proper sweeping soon. Well done though, like the entry

Oberon2001

* "are made Queen's Counsel, or take the silk" would probably look better as "are made Queen's CounselCalled "taking silk""

very good

noticed there was no mention of stipendary magistrates, its been a few years since I worked in a solicitors office but I presume they still exist

also surely most barristers that work as advocates are in chambers, and a barrister in chambers is still self-employed
chambers are a form of partnership, not an employer

2 things that may be worth mentioning
a trainee barrister has to work unpaid as a pupil for some time
an MP barrister who becomes a minister is automatically made a QC

couple of notes on captial letters

house of Lords - House of Lords

head of state - not sure if it is Head of State or not - sorry

The Prime minister and the Government - note that on the next paragraph, you don't caplitalise government. I don't think it should be capitalised, but somebody can correct me on that. Prime and Minister are both capitalised

Does all of this apply to Scotland too?

no, when I worked in C&E in London Scotland had its own solicitors office because of its seperate legal system
all I can recall is that lots of the names are different
I think a Sheriff is either a magistrate or a judge and the Procurator Fiscal was similar to the attourney general but I can't say for certain

This is very comprehensive - useful for an American like me with a great interest in British law.

Maybe you should take out the bit about the current Lord Chancellor. This will change rather often and so it will be difficult to keep the entry up-to-date.


Should become: "... in a range of different areas, such as:"

Maybe you should be clearer on the fact that the nomenclature (is that the word?) doesn't necessarily apply to Scottish law.

Yep, stipendary magistrates (or "stipes") do still exist, though they are now more properly called District Judges (Magistrates' Courts). They are full-times legal professionals with at least seven years experience.
Oberon2001

Crumbs
Thanks all. There are now a lot of changes in the pipeline.
It might take me a few hours to get around to all of this though as I do have another life, which has absolutely nothing at all to do with anything in the UK legal system. Hence a few obvious mistakes. All other suggestions are very welcome.
Orange_Squash
(who also likes )

Tidying up the GuideML:

Get rid of the and

Remove every .

Put at the start of each paragraph and at the end of each paragraph.

Cool. Let me know when the changes are done and I'll take a look at it (I'm a first year law student... so no experience in law at all, but what the hell, eh?)
Oberon2001

Have made a lot of changes. Still a few more needed though I feel. Am a little short of time though, so it's not all going to happen at once. The big question at the moment is just how many law lords are there? Are there 12 or 13 or does the 13 include the Lord Chancellor? I have not clearly defined yet either where Northern Ireland stands in relation to its own legislation situation. Think I need to define the judiciary and is a District Registrar the same as a District Judge? It's all beginning to make my head hurt.
Orange_Squash

The formatting of this is all much neater now.

You will need to add an introductory paragraph at the very start before the header "Lawyers". This should say something like:

"The United Kingdom has a legal system which has been evolving for nearly a thousand years, resulting in a complex collection of institutions and people who keep the laws in order. These range all the way from junior solicitors to the Queen herself. Read on to find out who they all are."

Feel free to use that as it is, paraphrase it or completely replace it with something more appropriate.

Ohhhh... Lovely
There are twelve law lords, plus the Lord Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor no longer sits in on cases. For a full list of Law Lords, see http://www.dca.gov.uk/judicial/senjudfr.htm#part2 . A grammatical point, you haven't closed the bracket on that section (Law Lords)
Under Solicitors, it might be worth putting something about Solicitor Advocates. These are solicitors who have taken a series of exams to qualify for advocacy in higher courts.
Don't really know what a District Registrar is, don't think it's the same as a District Judge.
Oberon2001

"The regularity body for..."
Regulation body? I think there's a more proper description for it than that... 'professional body'?

nice detailed entry

isn't the lord chancellor being replaced by a minister, or something like that, that was at the last big cabinet reshuffle wasn't it? is the lord chancellor a member of the cabinet?

what happens when the monarch is prosecuted, isn't there a special case when the monarch of their family is a witness or defendant? wasn't there something like, that , they didn't want to take paul burrel to court because he could call the queen as a witness so the queen made something up about him asking to have stuff, when he was on trial for stealing dianas stuff.

aren't lay magistrates or whatever also called JP's?

good work

SuperSam

It does say that lay magistrates are also called JPs. Footnote #7.

I think I meant 'regulatory body' didn't I

The Lord Chancellor was going to be replaced by a Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, but those plans have been ditched. The Bill currently going through Parliament proposes that the Lord Chancellor would be replaced as head of the judiciary by the Lord Chief Justice. The Lord Chancellor would then be just a normal minister and wouldn't neccessarily have to be a Lord. There's fierce opposition to this in the HoL -> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4076087.stm

Fairly sure you can't say the Queen made something up. Although yes, she did say that she'd given Burrell permission to borrow the items in question (wasn't really her right to do that, but the case still collapsed!)

Oberon2001