Welcome to PNBA.

The PNBA is administered by an executive committee which holds elections for office annually. The officers of the Association comprise a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer who are elected biennially. Election is by direct ballot of the whole membership, which is open to practising and non-practising members of the Bar who have an interest in the subject matter. There are no categories of student or pupil membership, however pupilmaster members are expected to bring their pupils to PNBA events.

In addition to its continuing education activities the PNBA is represented on the General Council of the Bar and is an active consultee in the process of law reform and procedural changes. It carries the view of its members to the Bar Council, Lord Chancellor’s Department, Law Commission, and a variety of governmental and non-governmental organisations. It publishes the Professional Negligence Law Review, a newsletter produced by Sweet & Maxwell, and Tables for the Calculation of Damages, an annual edition. The great strength of the Association is that throughout the 1990s its members were at the cutting edge of major developments in the law as professional indemnity cases were used to develop wider legal concepts of rights and obligations in tort and in equity. At meetings the Association has the benefit of having members present who can provide a first hand account of such developments and are willing to share such details.

The Association has an annual continuing education programme, the high points of which are the Peter Taylor Annual Memorial Address, an open lecture delivered by a senior member of the judiciary in memory of our first President, the later Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, a weekend Residential Clinical Negligence seminar in the second or third week of September which alternates between colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and the annual Saturday seminar on Solicitors’ Negligence over the third weekend of October. The PNBA also promotes basic education for juniors in its annual Back to Basics Course over three weekday evenings in November. In addition the Association holds lectures and seminars throughout the year, principally at the benchers rooms of Inner Temple and occasionally in Manchester and Leeds. The PNBA has an extensive provincial membership and our lectures are transcribed and occasionally videotaped for library use. Since 1997 the Back to Basics Course has been transmitted by video link live to chambers in Bristol, Nottingham, Leeds, Cardiff, Newcastle and Liverpool.

The Association is forward looking and always wishes to receive from members and lawyers generally topics for discussion and comment. Articles, reviews, notes and law reports are warmly welcomed for posting on our website and publication in PNLR.