Advocacy for the unpopular: The barristers’ cab-rank rule in England and Wales, past, present and future?

Published in two parts, this article outlines the cab-rank rule of the English and Welsh Bar, seeks to emphasise the rarity of such a rule internationally and recounts some foreign impressions of it. A second section describes the 18th Century origins of the rule, how it developed and found a place in statute. The third section explains how the rule may confer advantages on both clients, especially unpopular ones,and barristers. Views of those who strongly support the principle of the cab-rank rule are put forward. The next section contains opinions of those who,whilst not necessarily denying that the rule contributes to access to justice, maintain its importance is exaggerated , mainly because it does not apply to solicitors and is evaded by some barristers. This section also includes proposals made by the Bar Council's Bar Standards Review Body to modify the present cab-rank rule, partly as a means of making it more enforceable. The final section looks at the effects of conditional fee, "no win no fee" , arrangements, set to markedly increase under Government plans, on the Bar and the cab-rank rule.