Judges in Great Britain

A judge is a public official authorized to decide questions brought before a (26 - c)….. The powers, functions, method of appointment, and (27 - a)….of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. 

Judges are chosen from……(28 - e) who gained considerable experience as legal practitioners. In continental systems a law (29 - b).. can choose to be a judge at the beginning of his/her career. In Great Britain they cannot. A distinctive feature of the British system is that it does not have law schools training judges.

The vast majority of British judges are …(30 - d). A small proportion of judges are not magistrates. They are called “High Court Judges” and they deal with the most serious crimes.

PART III

READING

Text 1

1. Прочитайте текст о профессии юриста в Великобритании. В каждом из заданий 1 – 10 выберите высказывания, которые являются правдивыми («True»), ложными («False») или те, информация которых не упоминается в тексте («Doesn’t say»).

Legal Profession

The solicitor is the first point of contact with the law for a client in the UK. The solicitor listens carefully to the client, making sure their needs are clearly understood and then explains the legal position and offers advice. By contrast, barristers will only see the client in the company of a briefing solicitor. The barrister is the specialist with particular skills in advocacy, a consultant who will examine the case and decide what line to take in court. The barrister relies on the detailed brief prepared by the client's solicitor. There are only a few solicitors who are allowed to present cases in the higher courts. Many more solicitors work in their litigation departments and spend much of their time preparing briefs for counsel. Barristers are self-employed in the independent Bar.

The Bar is an independent body with over 8,000 practicing barristers in over 400 chambers in England and Wales.

The Bar is an advocacy profession. The Bar’s right of audience in the higher courts remains unchallenged. The work is divided equally between civil and criminal law. There are over 70 specialist areas, including major ones like chancery (mainly property and finance) and the commercial bar.

Judges in England and Wales have mostly been barristers of 10 years’ standing, then Queen's Counselors, and are appointed by the Lord Chancellor. Judges cannot work as barristers once they are appointed.

Solicitors do a variety of work - corporate and commercial, litigation, property, private law, banking and project finance, employment law and environmental law. There are about 66,000 practicing solicitors in England and Wales.

	True	False	Doesn’t say
1. A barrister and a solicitor are both qualified lawyers in the UK.			+
2. A solicitor writes a description of a case so as to inform the barrister of the legal points.	+
3. Generally, all the solicitors cannot speak in a higher court.	+
A barrister in the UK is an independent qualified lawyer.	+
5.If you want to work for a law firm and receive a regular salary, you should become a barrister.		+
6.There are more solicitors than barristers	+
7. To become a barrister , you need to pass the Bar Final Examinations.			+
8. If you have any kind of legal question the first person you consult is a barrister.		+
9.The law system is the same in England as in Scotland but differs in Wales		+
10. Ten years practical experience in law is required to become a judge.		+

Прочитайте текст 2 и выполните задания (I-II)