Chambers Blog

Always keen to support those interested in a career at the Bar, New Walk Chambers were amongst the speakers at the "A career in law" careers talk held at Loughborough University on the 9th November 2011.

Christopher Knowles attended the event and gave a talk on a  career at the Bar and the life of a Pupil Barrister. He was one of three speakers at the event - the other two being representatives from the Government Legal Service and the College of Law.

His talk covered the numerous routes to a career as a Barrister, and what chambers would be looking for in prospective pupils and how to apply for pupillage.During the course of the talk, Christopher touched upon the Inns of Court, the Bar Professional Training Course and CV and application form tips.

Following the talk, Christopher remained behind to answer questions from students and participated in an exercise with the College of Law, which covered aspects of the core modules which would be studied on the graduate diploma in law course, namely contract, criminal, tort, land, constitutional, equity and trusts, and european law.

Simon Reed has recently represented H.M. Prison service in a high profile inquest case. This was recently reported in an artice on This Is Nottingham.

If caught failing to comply with traffic lights, one is open to prosecution and conviction. As with many of this sort of offence you will be summonsed to appear at Court on a certain day. If convicted, you will be liable to a fine and points on your licence. If you already had points on your licence, this could result in you being disqualified from driving for accumulating too many points. Lay clients can either brief a barrister through a solicitor or they can come direct to a barrister under the public access, or as it is sometimes known direct access, scheme.

A person is guilty of an offence if they drive, or attempt to drive, a motor vehicle on a road or other public place after consuming so much alcohol that the proportion of it in breath, urine or blood exceeds the prescribed limit. Nearly everyone will know that it an offence to drive whilst drunk (or under the influence of drugs) but few will know of the consequences of such a conviction. Not only would it raise your car insurance but it will also result in a mandatory ban from driving. You will be disqualified for at least 12 months (considerably longer if this isn't your first conviction for such an offence). In addition to a ban, you will also be fined and if your reading is too high a prison sentence is a possibility. It is also an offence to fail to provide a specimen. People will often try anything in an attempt to keep their driving licence, and often end up putting forward preposterous suggestions forward to the Court. This will not help matters, and proper legal advice should be sought in respect of potential defences.Lay clients can either brief a barrister through a solicitor or they can come direct to a barrister under the direct access, or as it is sometimes known public access, scheme.

Many people will not worry about the consequences of committing such offences, e.g. having no television licence or driving with no insurance. They may consider that the risk is justified by the lack of punishment they would receive if they were caught and convicted. However, this is not the case. A conviction for such an offence can lead to the imposition of a fine and, in some cases, imprisonment. In the case of driving with no insurance, it could also result in a person being banned from driving. Such offences should not be taken lightly. If charged (in most cases you will be merely summonsed to Court) it is recommended that you are represented by a legally qualified person, as this can be a technical area of law and skilled advocacy is required to mitigate on your behalf. Lay clients can either brief a barrister through a solicitor or they can come direct to a barrister under the direct access, or as it is sometimes known public access, scheme.