Test paper (English, part-time students 1-3 terms)
1. Read the text «Legal profession» and answer the questions below it.
England is almost unique in having two different kinds of lawyers, with separate jobs in the legal system. The legal profession is divided into two branches: barristers and solicitors, who are sometimes called the junior branch. Both barristers and solicitors are professions held in high regard. This division of the legal profession is of long standing and each branch has its own characteristic functions as well as a separate governing body. The training and career structures for the two types of lawyers are quite separate.
The traditional picture of the English lawyer is that the solicitor is the general practitioner, confined mainly to the office. If a person has a legal problem and needs the assistance of the law, either because he has a dispute, or because he is in trouble, or concerned with a question of inheritance or transfer of property, he will go to a solicitor and seek his advice in a personal interview. There is no end to variety of matters which can appear on a solicitor’s desk. They deal with all the day-to-day work of preparing legal documents for buying and selling houses, making wills, writing legal letters, they do the legal work involved in conveyancing, probate, divorce. Solicitors work on court cases for their clients outside the court: in a civil action solicitors have the right to speak in the lowest Courts when the case is one of divorce, recovering some debts, matrimonial matters, petty crimes. If a case, civil or criminal, is more serious or difficult, or has to be heard in a higher court, solicitors engage a barrister to whom they hand over the task of representing the client in the court. They prepare a case for barristers to present in the higher courts and the barrister receives it in the form of a brief from which he plans his advocacy in the particular case.
Law Society1 is a governing body of solicitors. Solicitors usually work together in partnerships, or “firms’. To qualify as a solicitor a young man joins a practising solicitor as a “clerk” and works for him whilst studying part time for the Law Society exams. When you have passed all the necessary exams, you may apply to the Law Society to be “admitted”, then you can start business on your own. It is not necessary for you to go to university.
In England, the decision is between becoming a barrister or a solicitor. Although solicitors and barristers work together on cases, barristers specialise in representing clients in court. A barrister can only be consulted indirectly, through a solicitor. Thus they are not paid directly by clients, but are employed by solicitors. Most barristers are professional advocates but it is a mistake to regard a barrister entirely as an advocate. A barrister must be capable of prosecuting in a criminal case one day, and defending an accused person the next.
A would-be2 barrister must first register as a student member of one of the four Inns of Court3: Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, Inner Temple or Middle Temple and keep twelve terms as a student at his Inn. A student must pass a group of examinations to obtain a Law degree and then proceed to a vocational course, highly practical in nature, the passing of which will result in his being called to the Bar4.
Barristers are experts in the interpretation of the Law. They advise on really difficult legal matters (this is known as “taking counsel’s opinion”). So barristers spend a lot of time at paper work apart from their actual appearances in court where they wear wigs and gowns in keeping with the extreme formalities of the proceedings.
Judges are usually chosen from the most senior barristers, and once appointed they cannot continue to practise as barristers.
The highest level of barristers has the title Q.C. (Queen’s Counsel). The status is bestowed on about 30 counsellors a year by the Queen on the advice of the Lord Chancellor. Before a junior counsel can hope to achieve the status (“to take silk” as this process is called) he must be able to point to at least 10 years successful practice as a barrister. The Q.C. is expected to appear only in the most important cases.
A lot of work in English solicitor’s offices is undertaken by managing clerks, now called “legal executives”5, who are a third type of lawyers. They have their own professional and examining body – “The Institute of Legal Executives”.
Taking the legal profession as a whole, there is one practicing lawyer per 1200 people. This compares with about one lawyer per 600 in the USA. There are about 5,000 barristers and 50,000 solicitors, the number which is rapidly increasing, and they make up by far the largest branch of the legal profession in England and Wales.
Many people believe the distinction between barristers and solicitors should be eliminated in England. The government is considering various proposals, but there are arguments for maintaining, as well as removing, the division.
Notes:
1. Law Society – Общество юристов (профессиональный союз солиситоров)
2. would-be – стремящийся стать
3. Inns of Court – “Судебные инны” (четыре корпорации барристеров в Лондоне; пользуются исключительным правом приема в адвокатуру; в школах при этих корпорациях готовят барристеров; существуют с XIV в.)
Gray’s Inn – “Грейз Инн” (самый новый из “судебных иннов”, назван по имени первого владельца здания).
Lincoln’s Inn – “Инн Линкольна” (готовит преимущественно барристеров Канцлерского овысокого суда правосудия; назван по имени первого владельца здания).
Inner Temple – “Внутренний темпл” (самый старый из судебных типов.)
Middle Temple – “Средний темпл”
4. to be called to the Bar – быть принятым в коллегию адвокатов
5. “legal executives” – законные исполнители (персонал, нанимаемый солиситорами, клерки)
1. What are the branches of legal profession in England?
2. Why are solicitors called general practitioners?
3. What are the qualification demands for a solicitor?
4. What are the functions of a barrister?
5. What are the qualification demands for a barrister? -
2. Read the text once again and find the English equivalents for the following expressions:
юрист общей практики - , юридическая помощь - , подготовка юридических документов - , сдавать экзамен - , выступать в суде со стороны защиты/обвинения - , эксперт в интерпретации права - , получить квалификацию юриста - , сложные правовые вопросы - .
3. Render the text using the expressions from task 2.
4. Open the brackets and put the verb in correct tense form.
1. Anyone who seeks the advice and help of a solicitor or a barrister is known as a client.
2. The lawyers never tell one another the professional secrets of their side of the case and they must always try as hard as they can whether their professional opponents are people they like or dislike.
3. The answer is: anyone who is charged with the crime and who denies being involved in it must have a fair trial.
4. If a person asks to defend him, the lawyer uses all his knowledge and skill to present his client’s case in the best possible light.
5. The profession of a solicitor develops over the past years. They act as legal advisers and recorders of a case as it progresses.
6. After hundreds of years, times are changing now and specially qualified solicitor advocates appear in the High Court and in the Crown Court.
7. In simple cases the solicitor usually leave the barrister to get on with the case in court on his own; in more difficult cases, the solicitor sits behind the barrister in court and assists in the presentation of the case.
8. For centuries the Inns of Court are the training institutions and professional societies for barristers.
9. Changes in the legal profession alter their role substantially. In 1997 the Lord Chancellor makes the first appointment of some distinguished solicitors to become Queen’s Counsels.
10. In the next few' years it is expected that the government presses the Bar Council to allow barristers to deal with the public directly.
5. Change the following sentences from Active into Passive
1. Somebody stole my bag in the shop.
2. The police have arrested three men.
3. The bill includes service.
5. They cancelled all the flights because of fog.
6. Somebody accused me of stealing the money.
7. They are building a new ring-road round the city.
8. Someone was recording our conversation.
9. They have changed the date of the meeting.
10. He knew that somebody had attacked and robbed him in the street.
6. Choose the correct variant from a, b, c, d
1. Somebody who catches thieves is ... .
a) postman
b) cook
c) policeman
d) fireman
2. The students are ... the papers at the end of the term.
a) to subsist
b) to subject
c) to sublet
d) to submit
3. I would go abroad if I .. .you.
a) am
b) were
c) be
4. If a job arouses interest in terms of competition or action, it is to be described as ...
a) changing
b) chattering
c) charming
d) challenging
5. In Britain it is not just or, even mainly, wealth... determines someone’s class.
a) -
b) that
c) what
d) whether
6. Your passport will be returned to you as soon as your visa application...with.
a) has been dealt
b) had been dealt
c) will be dealt
d) is dealt
7. How jumpy you are! A moment ago you...that everything...all right with our team.
A
a) were saying
b) said
c) had said
d) have said
B
a) will be
b) would be
c) must be
d) has to be
8. We ... serious trouble if we do not find the lost papers.
a) will be faced
b) will be facing
c) will face
d) will have been faced
9. I had so much ... on the train, but this nice man helped me when we arrived in Paris.
a) bags
b) luggage
c) box
d) packing
10. I don t really want to have a ... job as I would like to have my mornings free to be able to study.
a) permanent
b) full-time
c) part-time
d) temporary
11. Normally, before you are able to get a job, you have to attend a(n)... . If you do well in that, they offer you the position.
a) appointment
b) arrangement
c) interview
d) meeting
12. And when you go, make sure you bring your... to show the manager, rhis is a sort of record of your education and employment history.
a) RSVP
b) CD
c) CV
d) VCR
13. If you want to pass that exam, I ... you to start studying for it immediately.
a) advice
b) push
c) convince
d) advise
14. Don't waste time looking ... a cheap hotel when you arrive. I hey are all about the same price.
a) at
b) by
c) for
d) on
15. If you ... all the lessons on the course, you get a certificate anyway.
a) go
b) frequent
c) attend
d) assist
16. There is so little time left until the exams. I think I need to just concentrate my effort... the most important two exams that I cannot tail.
a) for
b) with
c) of
d) on
17. ..drive on the left-hand side in their country.
a) The British
b) British
c) a British
d) Britain .
18. She says that American hotel managers …a very difficult job now.
a) have had
b) have
c) will have
d) would have
19. That is not my book. It is ….
a) him
b) his
c) himself
d) -
20. He patted her on... shoulder
a) -
b) the
c) a
d) her
21. I wish I ... to your party last Sunday.
a) will come
b) could come
c) had come
d) come
22. I love this house. I ... here all my life.
a) am living
b) have been living
c) have lived
d) was living
23. He ... a new suit yesterday.
a) was buying
b) bought
c) had bought
d) buys
24. No matter ... everybody says, I think she is a very nice person.
a) what
b) that
c) how
d) which
25. ... he been asked, he would have come to the meeting.
a) Had
b) Were
c) Should
d) If