I received an email from the Portal the other day, informing me that there had been a problem with their system. Some pupillage applications were missing the main body of the form (the application questionnaire) when chambers downloaded them.
I received this email on the 19th July; nearly 3 months after the closing date for pupillage applications.
I received an email yesterday from the Portal assuring me that none of my applications were affected. This was shortly followed by an email from one of the chambers I applied to, informing me that my application questionnaire had been absent when it was downloaded.
The original email from the Portal said that the Bar Council and the Bar Standards Board were considering postponing the date when offers for pupillage be made (2nd August), so that the process be 'transparent and clear'.
Transparent and clear, my foot!
I really cannot see chambers re-starting the whole application sifting and interview process again, some 3 months after the closing date for pupillage apps. I cannot understand why it has taken this long for the problem to come to light.
What a farce!
The Law Show
4 days ago
12 comments:
I only ever hear bad things about the Portal...glad i never have to go through it!
it beggars belief. as if getting pupillage isn't hard and unpleasant enough without getting screwed by this too.
how can they fuck people's entire careers like this?
That's awful!!! I wonder how many people have been affected...
It is dreadful. 3 months to notice such a thing - beggars belief.
I doubt we'll ever know how many were affected Andro. The Portal said a small number, but then they also said none of my apps were affected and I now know that aint true.
While its appauling I don't think anyone has really been affected to their detrament. The questionairre is compulsory so candidates could not have left it out, so when the form was downloaded pdf they just had to get the rest from the system in word. I know a couple of people on pup committees who did this. ANOTHER unmanaged storm in a teacup by the bar council really.
Ginge
I agree with Ginge that people who were affected didn't lose out (hopefully!).
What's more suspicious is how, within 1 week of knowing about this problem, the Bar Council managed to contact every chambers and get them to check which forms were affected and then inform all candidates. This is surely impossible as evidenced by Barmaid who was told her forms were not affected by the Bar Council but told differently by chambers!
And the Bar Council only just finding out about it suggests that chambers didn't bother informing the Bar Council of the problem!
I smell a cover up... (or worse!)
My guess is they probably tried to hush it up as much as possible... until they realised they had a leak :-\
hmmm.. sounds mightily familiar, doesn't it...?
Ugh!!! sounds like a mess.
That's awful!!!
Sounds more like incompetence to me, not necessarily a cover up.
It sounds to me like the Portal needs to get their ______ together!
Here in the US, we have our own versions of the Portal - very dysfunctional - not a lot of credibility.
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