Editing Bar (law)

{{Short description|Legal profession as an institution}}
{{About|the legal term|professional organizations of lawyers|bar association||bar (disambiguation)}}
[[File:WorcesterMassBar.jpg|thumb|In this courtroom in [[Worcester, Massachusetts]] (United States), the ''bar'' is represented by a physical barrier (with swinging gate doors), separating the benches reserved for spectators from the [[judge]]'s [[bench (law)|bench]] and [[lawyer]]s' tables.]]

In [[law]], the '''bar''' is the [[legal profession]] as an [[institution]]. The term is a [[metonymy|metonym]] for the line (or "bar") that separates the parts of a [[courtroom]] reserved for spectators and those reserved for participants in a [[trial]] such as [[lawyers]].

In the United Kingdom, the term "the bar" refers only to the professional organization for [[barrister]]s (referred to in Scotland as advocates); the other type of UK lawyer, [[solicitor]]s, have their own body, the [[Law Society]]. Correspondingly, being "called to the bar" refers to admission to the profession of barristers, not solicitors.

==Courtroom division==
[[File:Bokrijk, Ancien Régime lawcourt.jpg|thumb|The wooden bar in front of the magistrate's [[bench (law)|bench]] in an 18th-century outdoor courtroom in [[Belgium]] ]]

The origin of the term ''bar'' is from the barring furniture dividing a medieval European courtroom, which defined the areas restricted to lawyers and court personnel from which the general public was excluded.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History – The Florida Bar |url=https://www.floridabar.org/about/faq/history/ |access-date=2023-05-23 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rivlin |first1=Geoffrey |title=Understanding the law |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, U.K |isbn=9780199608805 |page=147 |edition=6th}}</ref> Within most modern courts of the U.S., Europe and many other countries, the bar continues to be represented by a physical partition, such as a [[wikt:railing|railing]] or [[wikt:barrier|barrier]].<ref name="Walker">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=David Maxwell |title=The Oxford companion to law |date=1980 |publisher=Clarendon press |location=Oxford |isbn=0-19-866110-X |page=112,123}}</ref> The area behind the bar is open to the public.<ref name="blacks">
{{cite book |last= |first= |url= |title=Black's Law Dictionary |publisher=West Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=0-314-15199-0 |editor-last=Garner |editor-first=Bryan |edition=8th |location=St. Paul, MN |pages=157–8 |doi= |id= |author-link=}}</ref> This restriction is enforced in nearly all courts.

==License and certification==
''The bar'' may also refer to the qualifying procedure by which a lawyer is licensed to practice law in a given jurisdiction.

===U.S. procedure===
{{main|Admission to the bar in the United States}}
In the United States, this procedure is administered by the individual [[U.S. state|U.S. states]] and their respective bar associations. In general, a candidate must graduate from a qualified [[law school]] and pass a written test: the ''[[bar examination]]''. Almost all states use the [[Multistate Bar Examination]] (MBE), a multiple-choice exam administered on one day of a two- or three-day test. An increasing number use the [[Uniform Bar Examination]], which includes the MBE. In either case, on days during which the MBE is not administered, the bar exam may include questions related to that state's laws. If the candidate reaches the score required by a particular state, the candidate is then ''[[Admission to the bar in the United States|admitted to the bar]]''.  A lawyer whose license to practice law is revoked is said to be ''[[disbarment|disbarred]]''. 

State bar associations may set additional requirements to bar admission such as trial and court observations, character and background screenings, or an additional examination on professional ethics. 

==== U.S. patent procedure ====
{{main|USPTO registration examination}}
Admission to practice before the [[Patent law of the United States|patent]] section of the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] (USPTO) requires that the individual pass a separate, single-day examination administered by that agency. This test is typically referred to as the "patent bar", although the word "bar" does not appear in the test's official name.

Unlike the general bar examination, for which graduation from a recognized law school is a prerequisite, the USPTO exam does not require that the candidate have taken any law school courses. Instead, the main prerequisite is a science or engineering background, most often met with a bachelor's degree in a relevant field. Individuals who pass the examination are referred to as "patent attorneys" if they have an active law license from any U.S. jurisdiction, and "patent agents" otherwise. Attorneys and agents have the same license to represent clients before the patent section of the USPTO, and both may issue patentability opinions. However, any other patent-related practice (such as licensing or infringement litigation) can only be performed by licensed attorneys—who do not necessarily have to be USPTO-licensed.

===British procedure===
{{main|Call to the bar}}
In the United Kingdom, the practice of law is divided between [[barristers]] ([[Advocates#Advocates in Scotland|advocates in Scotland]]) and [[solicitors]]; advocacy before a court is almost always carried out by barristers (or advocates). A person who becomes an advocate or barrister is referred to as being ''[[Call to the bar|called to the bar]]''.  In the UK, there is a distinction between the ''inner bar'' (for senior [[King's counsel]]) and the ''outer bar'' (for [[Junior barrister]]s).

==The legal profession==
''The bar'' commonly refers to the legal profession as a whole. With a modifier, it may refer to a branch or division of the profession: as, for instance, the ''[[tort]] bar''—lawyers who specialize in filing [[Lawsuit|civil suits]] for damages.

In conjunction with ''bench'', ''bar'' may differentiate lawyers who represent clients (''the bar'') from judges or members of a [[judiciary]] (''[[Bench (law)|the bench]]''). In this sense, the bar advocates and the bench adjudicates. Yet, in some countries, judges who previously worked as lawyers representing clients commonly remain members of the bar and lawyers are commonly referenced as ''Officers of the Court''.

The phrase ''bench and bar'' denotes all judges and lawyers collectively.<ref name=Walker/>

==See also==
* [[Admission to practice law]]
* [[Admission to the bar in the United States]]
* [[Bar association]]
* [[Bench (law)]]
* [[Call to the bar]]
* [[Courtroom]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{EB1911 poster|Bar, The}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20161220152424/http://www.learningthelaw.in/2016/07/importance-of-bar-bench-relationship.html Importance of Bar & Bench relationship], available at learningthelaw.in

{{Law}}

[[Category:Courts]]
[[Category:Judiciaries]]