Tiered advocacy disputes

The performance of advocates will be measured using a structured, tiered system the Bar Council and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have announced. Outlining the new procedure in a joint letter, Bar Council chair Timothy Dutton QC and Mike Kennedy, chief operating officer at the CPS, said the organisations were committed to working together to preserve the highest possible standards of advocacy. Under the new system performance issues will be raised in writing through a tiered system in order to address issues at a local level. The procedure then allows for those disputes not resolved to be escalated via local unit heads to the relevant higher body with details on why a resolution was not forthcoming.