Legal advice

4 Key excerpts on "Legal advice"

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  eBook - ePub

  Law for the Construction Industry

  • J.R. Lewis, Stephanie Owen(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  2 The administration of English law  

  The legal profession

  Barristers-at-law and solicitors of the Supreme Court

  In England and Wales, the legal profession is divided into two completely separate branches, those of barristers and solicitors, which have developed in entirely different ways. Collectively, they and legal academics are known as lawyers.

  Generally

  The man in the street seeking Legal advice would firstly need to see a solicitor, whose name could be supplied from the yellow pages of the telephone directory, or the lists kept at Citizens Advice Bureaux.

  A solicitor could be described as the general practitioner of the legal profession. He will give general Legal advice, and will undertake to do divorces, adoptions, conveyancing (buying and selling land), drawing up of wills, obtaining probate on the death of someone, and debt collection through the courts. Usually, he works at his office, but, if his work involves court appearances, then a solicitor is entitled to present the case (act as an advocate) in the magistrates' court, the county court, and in certain situations the Crown Court. If, however, the work involves a trial at the Crown Court, or litigation in the High Court, or there is an appeal to the Court of Appeal or House of Lords, then he must normally obtain the services of a barrister.

  Under the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, solicitors who are good at advocacy have the right to apply to extend their rights of audience to the higher courts. Such solicitors must undergo a further training course and examination in advocacy and, in addition, must obtain a certificate of eligibility based on having taken part in 50 contested hearings over two years. As a result, in 1996, only 420 solicitors out of a total of 70,000 had become solicitor advocates, and of those only 71 qualified via the course. The rest had been barristers originally.

  Thus, the barrister's main function is to act as an advocate, and he has a right of audience in all English courts. Except in the magistrates' court, where robing is unnecessary, he will be dressed in the old-fashioned wig with pigtail, winged collar, tabs and a gown. Solicitor advocates are not permitted to wear wigs. Etiquette demands that his instructing solicitor

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  eBook - ePub

  Q&A Business Law

  • Janice Denoncourt(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 The Legal Profession

  Introduction In England and Wales, there are essentially two main branches of the legal profession – solicitors and barristers.

  ‘Solicitors’ advise individuals and organisations on legal matters and ensure that their clients act in accordance with the law. Solicitors usually work in an office rather than in court. There are over 116,000 practising solicitors in England and Wales, governed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Almost 45 per cent of solicitors are women and over 11 per cent of all solicitors are from ethnic minority groups.

  ‘Barristers’ provide two main services – advocacy (representing clients in court) and giving specialist opinions on complex legal matters. They generally receive instructions through solicitors. There are around 12,000 barristers practising in the UK, governed by the Bar Standards Board. About 68 per cent of barristers are men and 11 per cent are from ethnic minority groups.

  The distinction between solicitors and barristers has blurred slightly over time. Since the 1990s solicitors have been able to represent clients in the lower courts (such as magistrates’ courts) and, if they have enough experience and gain specific ‘higher rights’ qualifications, they can become ‘solicitor advocates’ and represent clients in higher courts (such as Crown Courts or the High Court).

  Barristers are not allowed to form partnerships. Groups of barristers share offices called ‘chambers’ and are allocated work by a barrister’s clerk, who is also responsible for negotiating the barrister’s fees. A barrister can only be employed by a solicitor and can only meet the client he represents if the solicitor is also present.

  Queen’s Counsel (QC) or a ‘silk’: senior barristers are known as Queen’s Counsel and they generally appear with a junior barrister assisting them. The Queen’s Counsel Selection Panel makes the award of Queen’s Counsel. The Selection Panel is supported by its own Secretariat, which aims to serve the public interest by offering a fair and transparent means of identifying excellence in advocacy in the higher courts of England and Wales.

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  English Legal System

  • Ryan Murphy, Frances Burton(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Besides the ‘paralegals’ there are also some other puzzling terms which need explanation, such as ‘attorneys’ (who are not simply foreign lawyers, particularly in America where the word is much used to describe legal professionals, since they also exist in England and Wales) and ‘counsel’ (which is not simply another word for lawyers in some other countries, particularly other common law jurisdictions, or for an English or Welsh ‘barrister’, but is commonly used by companies to describe their ‘in-house’ lawyers who may be barristers or solicitors, or possibly neither). Counsel is also normally used to describe a barrister who is instructed in a particular case.

  Figure 15.1

  As you read

  Think about the wider picture of contemporary British life and the roles and functions of the working population, and to what extent the law touches their lives and occupations if they are not themselves lawyers. From the examples given, consider whether any of these roles might suit you as an eventual law graduate.

  Assess the extent to which the knowledge you will then have of the law and its practice would assist you in an occupation you would like to have, either in practising the law as such or in carrying out another occupation such as in a business, whether that might be in a large corporate entity, a medium sized or even small business or in a completely different occupation which will inevitably be touched by the law in one way or another.

  Consider the different roles of the practising barrister or solicitor; the chartered legal executive; the partly qualified ‘paralegal’, largely learning on the job but also sometimes taking training courses to formalise their work based learning; the ‘in-house’ lawyer working in the law department of a company or of local or central government; the specialist lawyers – dealing with trade marks and patents, or wills, inheritances and property transactions; and then of the many other occupations in which lawyers may now be found, such as in the ‘Alternative Business Structures’ into which lawyers – including barristers – are now permitted to enter … suddenly lawyers and quasi-lawyers may seem to be everywhere and their many varieties will need to be distinguished from one another, particularly when, in an age of consumerism and requirement for redress for unsatisfactory services or supply, it is necessary for a member of the public to know to whom to complain.

  The historical context of the professions

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  English Legal System

  • Jacqueline Martin(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  3     There is no maximum on the number of partners in a firm of solicitors. The size of firms varies from the sole practitioner to partnerships with over 100 partners and several hundred assistant solicitors.

  4     The work of a solicitor will vary according to the type of firm. Small high street firms are likely to concentrate on family law, wills and probate, housing law, consumer law and criminal law. Large city firms specialise in business and commercial law.

  5     Other careers are available as an employed lawyer in an organisation such as the CPS, Civil Service or local authority. Solicitors are also employed by private businesses as legal advisers.

  12.1.3  Advocacy rights

  1     Solicitors in private practice can also act as advocates. They have always had full advocacy rights in the Magistrates’ Court and the County Court.

  2     The Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 allowed them to apply for an advocacy certificate for rights in the higher courts, but only about 5% have applied for a certificate.

  3     The Access to Justice Act 1999 provided that all solicitors will be given full rights of audience. The intention was to bring in new training requirements to ensure that newly qualified solicitors will automatically have advocacy rights but this has not yet happened.

  4     Solicitors employed by the CPS may act as a prosecutor-advocate in any court for which they hold an advocacy qualification.

  5     Solicitors employed by the Legal Services Commission may act as an advocate to represent members of the public in any court for which they hold an advocacy qualification.

  6     Other employed solicitors only have rights of audience to represent their employer.

    12.2  Barristers

  12.2.1  Training 1

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