Shree. ( Advocate.) 18 October 2009
A V Vishal (Advocate) 18 October 2009
The use of the term bar to mean "the whole body of lawyers, the legal profession" comes ultimately from English custom. In the early 16th century, a railing divided the hall in the Inns of Court, with students occupying the body of the hall and readers or benchers on the other side. Students who officially became lawyers crossed the symbolic physical barrier and were "admitted to the bar". Later, this was popularly assumed to mean the wooden railing marking off the area around the judge's seat in a courtroom, where prisoners stood for arraignment and where a barrister stood to plead. In modern courtrooms, a railing may still be in place to enclose the space which is occupied by legal counsels as well as the criminal defendents and civil litigants who have business pending before the court.
Kiran Kumar (Lawyer) 18 October 2009
Vishal has a deep rooted knowledge on all such matters...g8
Prakash Yedhula (Lawyer) 18 October 2009
Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.
The bar is a dividing line in a courtroom. The area in front of the bar is restricted to participants in the trial: the judge or judges, other court officials, the jury (if any), the lawyers for each party, the parties to the case, and witnesses giving testimony. The area behind the bar is open to the public. This restriction is enforced in nearly all courts. In most courts, the bar is represented by a physical partition: a railing or barrier that serves as a bar.
"The Bar" is also commonly used to refer 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 civil suits for damages. The term is also used to differentiate lawyers who represent clients ("the bar"), from judges or members of a judiciary ("the bench"), although the phrase "bench and bar" denotes all judges and lawyers collectively.
Sachin Bhatia (Advocate) 19 October 2009
The bar (with swinging gate doors) in an American courtroom that separates the judge's bench and lawyer's tables from the public viewing area in the foreground. The term "bar" is also a metonym used to collectively define the group of licensed lawyers in a given jurisdiction."The Bar" is also commonly used to refer to the legal profession as a whole. With a modifier, it may refer to a branch or division of the profession.