Independent 10,980 by Filbert

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Medium-difficulty from Filbert today, I thought: a few slightly obscure entries, but with clear wordplay.

There’s a fairly obvious theme of court proceedings and legal terms. Most of the clue surfaces have some sort of reference, and the solutions include some related terms: plea BARGAIN, ARGUE a case, BREACH of contract, PLAINTIFF, CONSENT, decree NISI, SMALL PRINT. If we include partial solutions we can also have CLASS action and BILL. I should include the usual disclaimer that I’m not a lawyer, so my understanding of these terms is not necessarily reliable.

Apart from all the themed entries, I was amused by the surfaces of 11a, 17a, 14d and 21d. and by “browser” as a definition for a grazing animal in 6d. Thanks Filbert for the fun.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 CONCOCT
Rustle up new business behind County Court (7)
N (new) + CO (abbreviation for company = business), after (behind) CO (abbreviation for county, especially in Ireland), then CT (abbreviation for court).

Rustle up = concoct = create from whatever components are available.
5 BARGAIN
Contract lawyers make a profit (7)
BAR (term for lawyers collectively) + GAIN (make a profit).
9 ARGUE
University dons rage about quibble (5)
U (abbreviation for university) contained in (dons, as a verb = puts on) an anagram (about) of RAGE.
10 BELIEVERS
The faithful priest in the case of Beebe v HM Customs, removing habit (9)
ELI (Old Testament priest) in the outer letters (case) of B[eeb]E, then V + ER (HM = Her Majesty = the Queen) + [custom]S without CUSTOM (habit). If you were wondering, Beebe is the name of several places in the US, as well as a surname (mostly American).
11 SURPASS
Better almost certainly to say nothing when questioned (7)
SUR[e] (certainly) without the last letter (almost) + PASS (decline to answer a question).

Better, as a verb = surpass = do better than.
13 WOODIE
Meet your maker after court – it’s the gallows (6)
DIE (meet your maker, as a euphemism) after WOO (court, as a verb = make romantic approaches to).

An old Scottish word for a gallows rope, according to Collins.
15 CONKED OUT
Donut and coke supply failed (6,3)
Anagram (supply = in a supple manner) of DONUT + COKE.
17 WARM
Affectionate women are mostly married (4)
W (abbreviation for women) + AR[e] (mostly = without the last letter) + M (abbreviation for married).
19 ARVO
Carton’s inside around five wanting a bit of tea – that’s Sydney’s afternoon! (4)
The inside letters of [c]AR[t]O[n], without the T which is the first letter (a bit) of T[ea], around V (Roman numeral for five).

Australian (so used in Sydney for example) shortening of the word “afternoon”.
20 TREE SNAIL
Opening for legal trainees involved being shelled on a plane? (4,5)
Anagram (involved) of the opening letter of L[egal] + TRAINEES.

A creature (being) with a shell, which lives in a tree – perhaps a plane tree? Probably not, because (as far as I can find out) tree snails mostly live in tropical climates and plane trees mostly grow elsewhere, but there may be an overlap for some species.
22 BREACH
Force open commonplace letter for barrister in the Strand (6)
R (abbreviation for Latin Regina = the Queen, used to represent the state in names of legal cases such as “R v Joe Bloggs”, so commonly used by barristers I suppose) in BEACH (strand = seashore).
23 SHACK UP
Second drudge like Rumpole maybe happy to share chambers (5,2)
S (abbreviation for second) + HACK (as the fictional barrister Rumpole in the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey describes himself = drudge = one doing routine or menial work) + UP (happy).

Shack up = slang for “set up home” with someone, with the implication of sharing a bedroom.
26 PLAINTIFF
Litigious patent-holder, in patent dispute? (9)
PLAIN (patent = obvious) + TIFF (dispute = argument).

Extended definition: plaintiff = the person who brings a legal case against another, for example a patent-holder going to court over misuse of the patented invention.
28 STASI
Police force remains independent but close to judiciary (5)
STA[y]S (remains) + I (abbreviation for independent), without (but) the Y whch is the closing letter of [judiciar]Y.

The state security police of the former East Germany.
29 TIDIEST
Most orderly trial with papers I lodged (7)
TEST (trial), containing (with . . . lodged) ID (short for identitfication = papers) + I.
30 CONSENT
Prisoner delighted to give permission for it? (7)
CON (short for convict = prisoner) + SENT (delighted, as in the Sam Cooke song “You Send Me” perhaps?)

Consent, as in “the age of consent” = to give permission for “it” (sexual relations).
DOWN
1 CLASSIC CAR
Rascal moving houses thus caught offering outdated conveyance (7,3)
Anagram (moving) of RASCAL, containing (housing) SIC (Latin for “thus”) + C (caught, in cricket scoring).

Classic car = an old car of an outdated model, kept running by someone who likes that sort of thing.
2 NIGER
State upset Queen’s brief (5)
REGIN[a] (Latin for Queen, used in legal terminology for example), without the last letter (brief), reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue).

West African country.
3 OVERAWED
Fearful Roe v Wade could be overturned? (8)
Anagram (could be overturned) of ROE V WADE (the legal case that established abortion rights in the US).
4 TUB
Demurral over VAT (3)
BUT (demurral = objection), reversed (over).

Tub = vat = large container for liquid.
5 BILL WITHERS
Soul singer needing Chitty on Contracts (4,7)
BILL (chitty = paper containing a bill or similar document) + WITHERS (contracts, as a verb = shrinks).

70s and 80s singer of “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Lovely Day” among others.
6 REEBOK
Browser showing contents of Green Book, omitting nothing (6)
Inner letters (contents) of [g]REE[n] + BO[o]K, omitting one O (zero = nothing).

An antelope = grazing animal = browser. It runs fast, hence the use of its name by a company making athletics wear.
7 AMERICANA
US objects first to arraigning criminal in camera (9)
First letter of A[rraigning] + anagram (criminal) of IN CAMERA.
8 NISI
Heading north is popular, depending on conditions at court (4)
IS + IN (fashionable = popular), all reversed (heading north = upwards in a down clue).

Latin for “unless”, used in the legal term “decree nisi” = a court ruling that will become binding at a specified date unless certain conditions are met.
12 SHORT SHRIFT
Skimpy trousers Henry split giving waspish summary judgment (5,6)
SHORTS (skimpy trousers) + H (abbreviation for Henry = unit of electrical inductance) + RIFT (split).

To give someone short shrift is to dismiss their argument summarily without much consideration or courtesy.
14 SMALL PRINT
Details probably missed in dash around shopping centre (5,5)
SPRINT (dash) around MALL (shopping centre).
16 NEVERLAND
Location for Wendy house reflected equal right to light (9)
EVEN (equal) reversed (reflected), then R (right) + LAND (light = settle on a surface after travelling through the air).

The original Wendy house (in J M Barrie’s play, and later book, Peter Pan) was in Neverland.
18 ASSASSIN
Murderer‘s impertinence when in jails (8)
SASS (impertinence), contained in (. . . jails) AS (when) + IN.
21 SARNIE
Mr Universe repeatedly lifts small submarine, perhaps (6)
ARNIE (Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won Mr Universe repeatedly before turning to acting and then to American politics), after (below, in a down clue = lifting) S (small).

Slang for sandwich; a submarine is a sandwich in a long bread roll.
24 KNAVE
Jack pukes in the Middle Temple’s central area (5)
Central letter (in the middle) of [pu]K[es], then NAVE (main central area of a church, cathedral or temple).

Knave = jack = the playing card next in value below king and queen.
25 SPAT
Spring, time for dispute (4)
SPA (spring = natural water source) + T (time).
27 F O C
Pro bono clinic offers sandwiches on the turn (1,1,1)
Hidden answer (. . . sandwiches), reversed (on the turn), in [clini]C OF[fers].

Pro bono = legal term for a case undertaken without asking for payment = free of charge (abbreviated to FOC). From the Latin pro bono publico = for the public good.

12 comments on “Independent 10,980 by Filbert”

  1. In 22a, I took R as the most commonplace letter in the word “barrister” but may be wrong.

    Today we have Filbert, Fed & Falcon. What an effin coincidence.

  3. A treat for lawyers.
    Just a couple of notes for non-lawyers.
    5dn – Chitty on Contracts is the standard textbook on the subject. Lovely clue.
    6dn – the Green Book (formerly officially entitled they County Court Practice) is another doorstop containing the annotated Civil Procedure Rules.
    Oh, and re 10ac, a little research turns up a real, but very obscure, case called Beebe v The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the First-Tier Tax Tribunal.

  6. Hovis @1: anything but ineffable…

    A total contrast to yesterday with both G&I producing delightful puzzles. Filbert’s effort took me a while to get into but steadily solved once I’d got going. The theme was signalled by the multiple appearances of the word court in the clueing but it didn’t seem particularly intrusive.

    I agree with our blogger on singling out REEBOK for its definition; BREACH and PLAINTIFF both raised smiles, ARVO and WOODIE were nho but certainly gettable from the clues. Amongst a high quality set of challenges, two took the biscuit for me, both largely for their splendid definitions: BELIEVERS cunningly hidden in ‘the faithful priest’ and the sublime (and LOI) TREE SNAIL. I take the caveat that planes may not be tropical but I’m very inclined to give our setter the benefit of the doubt. ‘Being shelled’ is just lovely.

    Thanks Filbert and Quirister.

  7. Rog @3: thanks for those contributions. Chitty on Contracts is very clever and, yes, I did glance at t’internet re Beebe and found several US actions; so nice to discover there actually is one involving HMRC.

  8. Well, I thought this was on the easy end of the Filbert spectrum, but the theme wasn’t at all obvious to me. And although 13A had to be WOODIE I couldn’t see why, and it’s not in my Collins – time to get a more recent edition perhaps. Despite which, very enjoyable so thanks Filbert and Quirister.

  9. Thanks Quirister and everyone for comments
    This was quite fun to write after a few failed earlier attempts to write a legal puzzle. Bill Withers got it started.
    The Beebe I was thinking of is the Reverend Beebe who removed his habit for a dip in the Sacred Lake with George Emerson and Freddie Honeychurch. Link at the end, not recommended if you’re still having breakfast.
    Happy Christmas

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKbBwrsEV5A

  10. I was OVERAWED by the Roe v Wade anagram. Even I spotted the theme, though not the legal subtleties seen by Rog.

  11. Like Tatrasman @10 I thought that this was a relatively easy Filbert puzzle.
    Of course, I spotted the underlying theme (who didn’t) but I decided to ignore it.
    BILL WITHERS (5dn) went in from the definition and a couple of crossers.
    I didn’t have a clue what ‘Chitty on Contracts’ was about.
    I wondered whether Filbert, in 10ac, considered to do something more with ‘v’ because it means ‘versus’ and could have been quite useful for the last bit of the clue.
    I liked the use of ‘but’ in 28ac – you don’t see it very often like that.
    4dn (TUB) deserves a mention because setters are often criticised when an indicator is positioned in the middle.
    Filbert does it totally right here because ‘Demurral over’ does mean ‘but<' but 'over VAT' does not mean ‘tub<'.
    Many thanks to Quirister & Filbert from a happy solver.

  12. Like others, we saw the theme but didn’t pick up all the subtleties. And the Roe v Wade clue was somewhat topical, too. We liked SHORT SHRIFT, with ‘trousers’ for once not being used as a verb.
    Thanks, Filbert and Quirister.

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