Vocabulary Notes

Vice-Chancellor (VC) a judge who is vice president of the Chancery Division of the High Court. The Vice Chancellor is by statute responsible to the Lord Chancellor for the organization and management of the business of the Division and is ex officio a member of the Court of Appeal.

Chancery Division the work of the Division is principally concerned with matters relating to real property, trusts, and the administration of estates but also includes cases concerned with company law, patents and other intellectual property, and confidentiality cases.

Lord Chief Justice of England (LCJ) the chief judge of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court. He ranks second only to the Lord Chancellor in the judicial hierarchy. The LCJ is ex officio a member of the Court of Appeal and is President of its Criminal Division.

Court of Appeal the Court exercises appellate jurisdiction over all judgements and orders of the High Court and most determinations of judges of the county courts. In some cases the Court of Appeal is the court of last resort, but in most cases its decisions can be appealed to the House of Lords, with permission of the Court of Appeal or the House of Lords. The Court is divided into a Civil Division (presided over by the Master of the Rolls) and a Criminal Division (presided over by the Lord Chief Justice).

House of Lords (the Upper House) scrutinizes legislation and has judicial functions. The house is presided over by the Lord Chancellor and its business is arranged, in consultation with the Opposition, by a government minister appointed Leader of the House. The House of Lords is the final court of appeal in the UK in both civil and criminal cases, although it refers some cases to the European Court of Justice for a ruling.

Reading Comprehension

Exercises

I. Scanning.

1. Find out the number of parts in this chapter. Give their titles.

2. Find in the text the place explaining the reasons of unpopularity of lawyers and of legal profession as such.

3. Find out the information about codes of professional conduct for lawyers.

4. Find in the text the author’s opinion on lawyer’s role in the course of trial.

5. Find in the text the information about legal aid system.

6. Find in the text the information about a new system of payment of fees.

7. Find in the text the information about legal advice clinics and Law Offices.

8. Find out the information about two main legal privileges.

II. Skimming

A. Look more closely through the first part and decide which of the following statements renders the main idea of the given part.

1. Although lawyers may be at ‘daggers-drawn’ during a case, there are rules of behaviour – codes of professional conduct – which provide that when in court they must always be courteous to one another.

2. If a lawyer is asked to defend him [the client], he must use all his knowledge and skill to present his client’s case in the best possible light. This is so even if he feels that the defence is not a good one, and that it is unlikely to succeed.

3. Just as judges are expected to be independent, and do the right thing, so too are the members of the legal profession. This means that they should be determined and fearless in putting forward their client’s case.

B. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.

1. If litigants cannot afford to pay the fees of their lawyers, they may apply for legal advice.

2. Lawyers may agree to take on a case for no fee at all, on condition that if the client wins the case and is awarded damages, they will receive these winnings.

3. Claimants are people against whom claims are brought in the civil courts.

4. The privilege given to clients is that a lawyer must not reveal what he or she has been told by the client in the course of preparing a case, without the client’s consent.

5. If a lawyer performed his ‘out of court’ work negligently, giving bad legal advice, preparing a defective contract, the client couldn’t take him to court and claim compensation.