Google has not been my friend. *Sorted*

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Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Can anyone find me a credible source defining the meaning of the phrase "pass the bar". As in a person obtaining the privilege to argue before the court.

I have a bet with a friend at work, but I can not find a good reference source to back up my definition. As I understand it, the etymology of the phrase is the ability of someone who has earned their law degree, and has passed the bar exam, to physically walk through the gate that separates the inner courtroom from the gallery and thereby "passing the bar".

All I am finding with the Google is a thousand sites that want to sell me information on how to pass the bar exam.

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:21 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admission_to_the_bar agrees with you.

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:23 pm

Quote:

whole body of lawyers, the legal profession," 1559, a sense which derives ultimately from the railing that separated benchers from the hall in the Inns of Court. Students who had attained a certain standing were "called" to it to take part in the important exercises of the house. After c.1600, however, this was popularly assumed to mean the bar in a courtroom, which was the wooden railing marking off the area around the judge's seat, where prisoners stood for arraignment and where a barrister (q.v.) stood to plead. As the place where the business of court was done, bar in this sense had become synonymous with "court" by c.1330.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=b&p=2

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Thanks a ton! I kept searching using "passing" instead of "admission" to the bar.

That was exactly what I was looking for, thanks again.

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:32 pm

the bar
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

the bar originally, the rail that enclosed the judge in a court; hence, a court or a system of courts. The persons qualified and authorized to conduct the trial of cases are also known collectively as "the bar." From late medieval times in England the Inns of Court acted as training schools for men who were to plead causes in the courts, and when a student was judged to be trained in competence, he was "called to the bar" of the Inn; automatically he was then judged competent to plead at the bar of the courts. Modern bar associations, through which the legal profession regulates itself, derive from the Inns of Court. Attorneys must be admitted to the bar before they can practice law in the United States. The requirements for admission vary among the states, but generally an applicant must be of good moral character, have completed a stated course of study at a law school, and have passed a bar examination. The last two requirements were once satisfied by clerking and "reading law" with a practicing attorney. A lawyer can be prohibited from practicing law (disbarred) for conduct impeding justice, criminal acts involving moral turpitude, or unethical professional conduct. The first state to allow women admission to the bar was Iowa (1869), and Great Britain admitted women to law practice in 1919. There are 180 American Bar Association-approved law schools in the United States, the oldest being Harvard Law School, founded in 1817.

Author not available, BAR, THE., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:36 pm

The OED gives me this:

The barrier or wooden rail marking off the immediate precinct of the judge's seat, at which prisoners are stationed for arraignment, trial, or sentence. . . . This barrier, as the place at which all the business of the court was transacted, soon became synonymous with: Court; esp. in phr. at (the) bar: in court, in open court. trial at bar: a trial before the full court in which the action or indictment is brought; in England, the Queen's Bench Division.
And
A barrier or partition separating the seats of the benchers or readers from the rest of the hall, to which students, after they had attained a certain standing, were ‘called’ from the body of the hall, for the purpose of taking a principal part in the mootings or exercises of the house. Obs. See BARRISTER..

Edit: Oops -- these other responses appeared in the time it took me to hit paste and send. You people are fast!

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Thanks again gang, that is precisely the ammo I needed to win the bet. (It was a small wager, a beer, but the satisfaction of beating this know-it-all is priceless.)

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 8:00 pm

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:43 am

Just remember when collecting the bet, don't pass the bar, walk into it Wink

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