Ruling takes foreign lawyers further on passage to India

In March 1995, Judge David Bentley QC sitting in Sheffield Crown Court was forced to make a public apology after stating that a defendant did not need to ‘stoop so low’ as to employ the services of a solicitor-advocate. The idea that a member of the judiciary could publicly state such a view is now anathema, and rightly so. The legal landscape has shifted dramatically since 1995. Changes to public funding, rights of audience and regulation mean that the traditional distinction of the barrister in court and the solicitor behind the scenes preparing the papers is far removed from reality.