Disgraced barrister disbarred

In what is being touted as the final act in the Huhne/Price speeding points scandal, former judge Constance Briscoe was disbarred this week.

The bar disciplinary tribunal found that Briscoe had engaged in conduct which discredited the profession and was likely to reduce public confidence in the legal sphere and judicial system. She was not in attendance or represented at the hearing.

In May 2014, she became the first judge to be jailed in modern UK history after she was found to have perverted the course of justice. She was then removed from judicial office in August of the same year, but it has taken until now for her barrister’s title to be taken away.

Briscoe, who was one of the first black female judges in England, was found to have made inaccurate police statements, changed her witness statement and attempt to help her friend unjustly attack her estranged husband, MP Chris Huhne. She was jailed for 16 months.

Veronica Hammerton, who chaired the tribunal, claimed that Briscoe's conduct was a “serious and persistent departure from professional standards’ and of the ‘utmost gravity’,” which was “serious misconduct. It involved a number of actions, which were intended to pervert the course of justice. The offences are offences of dishonesty. This was persistent dishonesty and it was premeditated.”

Hammerton concluded that: “Ms Briscoe’s status as a barrister is a status which is accorded the highest level of trust. Accordingly any dishonest conduct for a barrister will damage the confidence placed in the profession.”

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