Solicitors And Barristers Essay, Research Paper

There are two legal professions in England and Wales, which have different functions. They are called barristers and solicitors.

Although they seem very similar, there are some differences in the way they are trained and in the way they work.

There are around 76000 solicitors and 7000 barristers in England and Wales. Duties of solicitors are very wide and varied. They carry out advocacy and other aspects of legal work, while barristers are concerned only with advocacy before the courts.

There are three ways to be trained as solicitors. The quickest and the most popular (about 64% of solicitors are qualified this way) would be as a law graduate. In brief both solicitors and barristers need to have a law degree at the beginning of training: solicitors then study on the Legal Practise Course, whilst barristers obtain a place on the Vocational Course of the Council of Legal Education .

To a person to qualify as a solicitor, he must first of all study at university for 3 years and pass LLB, which is professional exam for lawyers. A law graduate has to proceed to Legal Practise Course, which lasts for one-full year and gives practical skills for a student to become a solicitor. After that the student should get a training contract for about two years with a firm . the person must then , whilst training pass the Professional Skills Course , which is about one month in length. There are other possible ways of training , like as a non-law graduate either studying other subjects and as a legal executive. A non-law graduate way is very similar to the way I ve already described. The only difference is that before the Legal Practice course they should pass the Common Professional Examination, which is a course for a one year.

Whilst on the contrast, a person, who wants to become a barrister should first apply to become a student at one of the Inns. There are four Inns: Lincoln s Inn, Gray s Inn, the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple. To be a member of the Inn, student must dine at his Inn a certain number of times (usually twenty-four).

According to Brown in GCSE Law , barristers may also obtain a place on the Vocational Course with non-law degrees and then they must pass the Common Professional Examination or just pass the Common Professional Examination without any degree , but with distinction. Vocational Training is similar to Legal Practice Course of solicitors and gives practical skills and some more theoretical knowledge. If Vocational Training is finished successfully , the student is Called to the Bar . But he cannot practice unless he has spent an additional year of pupillage under a barrister of five years standing(a pupil master ). Pupillage is a form of practical training under a guidance of experienced barrister. Only after six months is he allowed to present minor cases on his own in court. Besides conducting a case in a court, barristers work consists of paper-work, e.g. advising solicitors on legal problems (called giving council s opinion ) and drafting plead.

Barristers and their clients are not bound in contract and barrister cannot therefore sue the client for his fees. (Exception Saif Ali v.Sydney Mitchell and Co.(1978)). Barrister get paid when solicitor pays him on the clients behalf. Barrister ,in theory, should represent a client unreservedly and respect his confidence. Barristers are not liable in negligence for their advocacy in court. Client can t approach a barrister directly. A meeting have to be arranged by a solicitor.

Barristers cannot form partnerships or share profits, whereas solicitors may work by themselves or in partnership with other solicitors. Bar s must act alone, but they can share chambers with other barristers and the barristers clerk , with whom solicitors usually negotiate fees, etc.

A barrister of 10 years experience may apply to become a QC (Queen s Council) .

Main function of solicitors is to advise clients on legal and financial matters. The solicitor prepares the case, ascertain the facts, makes arrangements with the witnesses . Unlike a barrister , who has audience rights in all courts, a solicitor only has a limited rights of advocacy and can only appear before the magistrates courts, county court, Crown Court and before the High Court.

About 83% of solicitors work in private practice and solicitors now, subject to certain rules, unlike barristers, are allowed to advertise their practise.

Many solicitors are employed in industry and local government jobs.

Solicitors are contractually bound to their clients, whilst barristers are not. Clients may sue solicitors for negligence, and solicitors may sue clients for non-payment of fees.(e.g. Dickinson v. Jones, Alexander & Co.(1989) . Relationships of solicitor and their clients must be fiduciary, i.e. you must tell your solicitor everything, and he must respect your confidence. This is called privilege.

There are two legal professions in England in Wales.

Whereas in other countries there is only one and lawyer have right to deal with all legal work and have no restrictions

This makes us think, what s better, to have one or two legal professions.

There has been many debates whether fusion of both professions would be better than separate professions and whether it would or wouldn t be better if from the point of view of litigate.

All changes itself are not very good, unless they bring improvements. There has been two legal professions for many centuries and this is deeply rooted in traditions and history of UK.

However, there are certain drawbacks of such a system, which is why it has been argued and proposed that there should be a single legal profession. Divided profession leads to duplication of work and also increases costs. If a case went to higher court (e.g. High Court) it means that client may have to pay two fees: to solicitor for initial work and to barrister for appearing before court , because only they have monopoly of audience rights. When barrister is employed, some physical difficulties occurs. It is inconvenient to deal all paperwork between two offices. It is often impossible to approach a barrister directly and barrister is often approached by an instructing solicitor through that barrister s clerk of chambers.

Also although their training is quite similar , there are separate system of legal education, and once you have chosen your profession there is no way back, and even if , for example solicitors , who found that they are gifted in la, cannot become advocates or judges of the superior court. So, why couldn t be there possibility of qualifying in both branches at the same time?

There one more disadvantage of two legal professions. According to Brown , barristers have no right to apply for probate.

However, fusing of professions in Belgium haven t given very successful results yet. There has been no noticeable reduction in the cost to the litigant .

In USA, where there is a fusion of profession, in most cases two lawyers , office and trial lawyer, handle it. (sample of barrister and solicitor in England). This quite good for a litigant, who feels more comfortable having two opinions on the case and having two lawyers working for him at no real additional price. It has been argued, that in England present divided system is chipper for many litigants as well. We still can t say whether it is true or not.

There are some other advantages to litigants of the divided professions, a judge is more trusting of barristers than solicitors, because a barrister s opinion is more objective. He doesn t take any participation in preparing the case. Also with the help of a solicitor, the client can find a barrister , who is a specialist in the subject.

In my opinion, it is not very good time to make a fusion. However, some changes should be made more wide, for example solicitors could be granted an audience in higher courts. Also barristers could have right to deal with client directly, without the intermediary of the solicitor.

Fusion of these two legal profession would inevitably lead to confusions and too many changes to a system that is firmly established and arguably working efficiently. It would also require too much expenditure to proceed with a distinction of the two legal professions, so it is perhaps better to have the present system.