Bar Defined and Explained

The collective attorneys or lawyers permitted to practice in a particular jurisdiction. E.g. the bar of California.2 min read

Bar

The collective attorneys or lawyers permitted to practice in a particular jurisdiction. E.g. the bar of California.

A place in a court where the counsellors and advocates stand to make their addresses to the court and jury; it is so called because formerly it was closed with a bar. Figuratively the counsellors and attorneys at law are called the bar of Philadelphia, the New York bar.

A place in a court having criminal jurisdiction, to which prisoners are called to plead to the indictment, is also called the bar.

An Obstacle Or Opposition. Some bars arise from circumstances, and others from persons. Kindred within the prohibited degree, for example, is a bar to a marriage between the persons related; but the fact that A is married, and cannot therefore marry B, is a circumstance which operates as a bar as long as it subsists; for without it the parties might marry.

A perpetual destruction or temporary taking away of the action of the plaintiff. In ancient authors it is called exceptio peremptorid. Loisel says, 'Exceptions (in pleas) have been called bars by our ancient practitioners, because, being opposed, they arrest the party who has sued out the process, as in war a barrier arrests an enemy; and as there have always been in our tribunals bars to separate the advocates from the judges, the place where the advocates stand when they speak, has been called for that reason the bar.'