legal systems: the legal profession, paper 1 sec a Flashcards
role of barristers
- self-employed, work from a chamber (office where they are based)
- advocacy (art of putting argument forward in the court room)
- as of 2024, 17,000 practising barristers
- employs a clark as a practice administrator, booking in cases and negotiating fees
- after practising for 10 years, application to be made QC, can now take on more difficult cases and earn more, now kc (king’s counsel)
- majority of barristers: focus on advocacy and have full right of audience
- some specialise in areas eg. tax, company law and will rarely appear in court
- represent client in court
- solicitor will allocate the barrister
advocacy in criminal cases
full rights in all courts, must go through solicitor first and have case allocated to them by a clerk
prosecution
they can defend or prosecute - if they are prosecuting they will be working for the crown prosecution service
defence
if defending they would either be paid by a defendant or the government if legal aid can be awarded
advocacy in civil cases
- originally have to see a solicitor first
- unnecessary expense, for civil cases can go straight to barrister
- examples of civil cases: negligence, contract, unemployment
- not allowed for criminal and family work
- must do extra training
cab bank rule
barristers must take case given by clerk, no right to refuse
employed barristers
- some can be directly employed by government and organisations
- have same rights of audience
kings counsel
role of solicitors
- most newly qualified solicitors will work in private practice in a solicitory firm
- about 40,000 solicitors are employed
- jan 2025, there were 160,000 practicing solicitors and 12,000 firms
- number of partners is not limited
- type of work will depend on the type of firm
- wide variety of work, mostly office based
- customer facing
- has rights of advocacy in the lower courts
- may brief a barrister where is it necessary to go to court
civil cases
- organise paper work and initial case details
- will represent clients in the lower courts, but will advocate a barrister if case is going to a higher court
criminal cases
- organise paper work and initial case details
- will represent clients in the lower courts, but will advocate a barrister if case is going to a higher court
advocacy
magistrates spirt, county court, can advocate qualifications to do cases in a higher court, courts and legal services act 1990
role of legal executives
- specialise in a particular area of law
- day-to-day work similar to that of a solicitor, though they tend to deal with more straight forward matters:
- handle various legal aspects of property transfer
- assist the formation of a company
- draft wills
- advise clients accused of serious or petty crime
- legal executive are free earners, where a legal executive works for a firm of solicitors in private practice, that legal executives work is charged an hourly rate directly to clients. the partners of the firm are responsible for the legal executives work
barristers - bar standards board
- regulated profession, training and entry standards and code of conduct
- investigates alleged breach of the code
- discipline any barrister in breach
- can be referred to a disciplinary tribunal can impose:
- reprimand, order further training, pay a fine up to £50,000, suspended, disbar (strike off)
solicitors - solicitors regulation authority
- overseas training and deals with complaints about professional misconduct of solicitors
- investigates: if evidence of serious professional misconduct it can put the case before the solicitors disciplinary tribunal
- if upheld: fine reprimand or suspend, or strike off
- complaint can take matter to the legal ombudsman
complaints against solicitors
- first through firm and then through SRA
- can sue through contract and negligence
legal executives - chartered institute of legal executives
- non-contentious work (no need to prove anything, lots of administration)
- can gain further rights by sitting exams
regulation body: chartered institute of legal executives
complaints against legal executives
- when an investigation is complete a summary of the issues is prepared, and the matter is put to the professional conduct panel for consideration
- the panel decide if there has been misconduct
- if it has not it will reject the complaint
- if there has been misconduct it may reprimand or warn a member
- serious matters go to the disciplinary tribunal, they have the power to:
- exclude a person from membership
- reprimand or warn the member
- in addition: the tribunal can order the legal executive to pay a fine up to £3,000 and costs
