Academic

Flood & Whyte on Direct Access to Barristers

By Lawrence Solum

John Flood and Avis Whyte (University of Westminster and University of Westminster - School of Law) has posted  Straight There No Detours: Direct Access to Barristers on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

With the inception of the Legal Services Act 2007 following the Clementi Report on new ways of providing legal services in the UK, the Bar is moving to alter the way it practices. Traditionally, the Bar has been a referral profession relying on solicitors and other professionals to instruct barristers when legal opinions or advocacy is sought. In recent years the Bar has attempted to open the barristers' profession to more direct access from clients thus bypassing solicitors.

This has had a mixed reaction among barristers and barristers' clerks. Some see it as the route to a modern diverse profession while others see it as potentially harming these traditional relationships between barrister and solicitor that have been built up over many years. Among solicitors this has been met by their own moves to become advocates in the higher courts.

The report presents findings from research carried out among barristers, clerks, chambers chief executives, and users. Data were collected via interview, survey, and documentary sources. It shows that barristers represent value for money for clients because of lower overheads than solicitors. But the current rules in place that regulate how barristers carry out direct access work do more to hinder than encourage users.

The report concludes that since the Legal Services Act will permit "alternative business structures" which will directly compete with barristers, and solicitors, an expansion of direct access work is one way of countering the effects of these changes.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on December 30, 2008 (boomark / email).