Legal Profession Essay Example

are lawyers who deal with clients directly, considered experts in particular areas of law and may restrict their work to litigation, commercial conveyance or revenue work (Slapper, 2004). Traditionally solicitors have advised parties in lawsuits and dealt with landed estates, gradually the roles combined and the name ‘solicitor was adopted. (TheLawSociety, 2009). The origins go back to the ‘attornatus’ or later called the ‘attorney’, who assists clients in the initial stages of the cases in law practicing in Court of Chorsery. (Slapper, 2004). They provide all round legal service, gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses and are entitled to appear in court on behalf of the client. (Keenan, 2007)

III. Barristers.

Barristers in the UK are depicted as the architects and executives of the legal system, they are, their presence is required if the case necessitate the appearance in the higher court. (Slapper, 2004). Barristers involve a greater skill and responsibility, they are consultant specialist legal advisers and courtroom advocates, have greater experience, and knowledge on the specific cases of law. (Barcouncil, 2009) Barristers are independent and do not give legal advice to the clients (Duhaime, 2009). Furthermore not authorized to initiate lawyer-client relationship and must wait for work from solicitors and have nothing to do with litigation. (Cohen, 2000) In addition they gain more respect from judges and strengthen the client at negotiation in court. (Barcouncil, 2009). Ordinary members of the public, unless indicted for a serious criminal offence are unlikely ever to retain a barrister (Gillespie, 2007)

IV. Difference between Solicitors and Barristers and different Governing Bodies.

To maintain professionalism law is overseen by the government or the independent regulating body such as a Bar council or the

Law Society. Bar council is the governing body of Barristers, formed in 1894 to deal with matters of professional etiquette (Barcouncil, 2009). Established in 1987. Law society is the professional governing body of solicitors, controlled by a council of elected members and an annually elected president, powers derived from Solicitors Act 1974. It was founded on 2June 1825, but first formal title was ‘The Society of attorneys, Solicitors, Proctors and others not being barristers practicing in the Court of Law and Equity in UK and the name was changed in 1903. (TheLawSociety, 2009) Barristers and Solicitors differ in training, wages and individual roles. (Afzal, 2002)

V. Beginning act for Fusion of Legal Profession.

When The Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 was passed it was considered to be the first step in Government plans towards the fusion of two professions by legislation, this was a step of regulation from the UK Government, rather than the professionals themselves. (Slapper, 2004). In this Act dismantled the monopoly of exclusive rights of audience in the higher courts such as House of Lords, Court of Appeal and High Court by barristers. It introduced new arrangements as to who may act as an advocate in courts. (Keenan, 2007).

Furthermore this act abolished any “common law rule which prevented barristers from forming multi disciplinary practices with other professions” and Section 61 of the Act “ entering into a contract for the provision of his services” (Keenan,2007). In addition following to this Act the second considerable step towards fusion can be the Access to Justice Act 1999 which introduced the Legal Services Consultative Panel where rights of audience for solicitors have changed. Furthermore barristers and

solicitors could take the case from start to finish.

VI. Arguments for Fusion of the profession.

1. Costs- Version of the cab rank Rule (Gillespie, 2007) where the client would have to pay both a solicitor and a barrister, this put by Michael Zander is “To have one taxi meter running is less expensive than to have two or three” meaning that if there would be one profession there would only be one meter (Catherine, 2007).

2. Inefficiency- work is sometimes duplicates, barristers have to argue the case, but solicitors prepare it. Bottoms and McLean in Sheffield revealed that clients saw the barrister for the first time, in 96 per cent of guilty and 79% of not guilty cases (Catherine, 2007). Furthermore if fused the barrister could deal with the case better being in charge rather than dealing with received instructions. (SixthformLaw, 2009)

3. Waste of Talent- lawyers have to decide early on the branch of the profession they want to take therefore if chosen to be a solicitor and later discovering advocacy talent it may be denied to use it in full potential. (Catherine, 2007)

4. Barristers overview- the pre-trial process is referred to as the “conducting litigation” done by the solicitor, on the other hand if the barrister would conduct the litigation they would be able to see the case more objectively, not being too optimistic because they are not involved in this process on a daily basis (SixthformLaw, 2009)

5. Returned briefs- often barristers are double booked therefore the other barrister may receive the brief in the last moment as the National Audit survey 1997 found that three out of four prosecution briefs were returned shortly before the

trial. (SixthformLaw, 2009)

VII. Arguments against Fusion of profession.

1. Specialisation- two professions can handle different jobs better than one profession doing both. (Catherine, 2007) 2. Importance of good advocacy- in adversarial system oral presentation is important, judges only rely on the lawyers, in 1979 Royal Commission suggested that fusion would lower quality of advocacy, because it requires different skills to argue which some solicitors may have insufficient practice in. (Catherine, 2007) 3. Use of court time- it is suggested that barristers are more organized to wait for courts with clients because court sets the day and time and the client waits. (Catherine, 2007)

4. Access to the Bar- if fused barristers would join large commercial firms making their specialist skills less accessible to the average person. 5. Interdependence- barristers are self-employed and have no links with anyone; this ensures that there is no persuasion happening. (SixthformLaw, 2009) 6. Reluctance to use specialists- most lawyers would become general practitioners and would try to deal with the case themselves (SixthformLaw, 2009) 7. Loss of expertise- Small firms would not be able to access full knowledge and experience at the Bar. (SixthformLaw, 2009) 8. Second opinion- a barrister is a source of independent expertise can bring objectivity to the case and approach the case from a different angle.

VII. Conclusion

As mentioned earlier the English Legal System is one of the only three in the world to have a divided legal profession. Furthermore the UK has uncodified constitution, meaning that there is no single constitutional document like in many other nations. To enhance a further distinction, the country of England is not a federation or a confederation. England and Wales share the

same Legal System, but the UK is a constitutional monarchy and a long history, which brings the divided legal profession in the present day.

To comment whether fusion should happen or division should stay would mean to question hundreds of years of tradition, and practice. The system of law and legal service is the driving force for secure kingdom or a government, it is hard to change in a day therefore the movements towards unification occurring since the 1960’s is just a process with no estimated conclusion or a time limit.

Lawyers are devided in UK, it would be fair to say that there is a choice, becoming a barrister takes more time, patience and an eager for knowledge and as a result you are self employed and earning less than the solicitor in most of the cases receiving work from solicitors. Debating for someone in court takes a bit more than just assembling papers or getting to know the case, it is a complex profession and therefore in my opinion in UK there is history is still working at this moment therefore a fused system will do more harm than good, and would fail the hope for an ongoing tradition in the future.

Bibliography

http://www.peterjepson.com/law/Alia%20Afzal.htm

http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/United_kingdom.htm

http://duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/B/Barrister.aspx

http://sixthformlaw.info/01_modules/mod1/1_4_legal_personnel/1_4_2_barristers_solicitors/15_solicitors_barristers_fusion.htm