Solicitors In UK Law
Solicitors are lawyers that deal with any legal issue and conduct proceedings in the courtroom. These people have a lot of contact with customers and are for the most part office based.
Most UK courts are Magistrates’ Courts and they deal with minor criminal cases. If a serious case comes before them, they will transfer it to a higher court like the Crown Court. Civil cases are usually heard in county courts and tend to be usually handled by solicitors.
To become a solicitor, a graduate student has two routes of admittance. If the graduate holds the right law degree, they can enrol with the Law Society. Should they have a good degree in a non law subject they’re able to complete a conversion course. The next phase for both will be to do the Legal Practice Course and then take a two year training contract through an approved firm. Anyone who has not attended university can still become a solicitor by being admitted as a Member of the Institute of Legal Executives and then doing the in-house training and pass the Legal Practice Course.
In the United Kingdom, there are barristers in addition to solicitors in the legal profession and a lawyer will usually be either one or the other (although they may be qualified as both and change their title accordingly). Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, giving expert legal thoughts and opinions and drafting legal proceedings. A barrister will be instructed by a solicitor to do something on behalf of a client - they are not allowed to conduct litigation. A solicitor is an attorney and so can act on behalf of a customer for writing letters of litigation. Barristers are frequently found in the Crown Court, High Court and Court of Appeal.
Solicitors used to require the services of a barrister to act as advocate in anything at High Court level or above following the legal profession split into the independent professions of solicitors and barristers.
The split between the two is now much less pronounced. Barristers once experienced a monopoly on appearances before the higher courts, but in England, Scotland and Wales this is certainly no longer the way it is, and solicitor advocates can appear for clients at trial. A solicitor advocate is a solicitor with the relevant certification allowing them Higher Rights of Audience to practice in the higher courts. Firms of solicitors are also retaining more advisory and litigation work in-house, even the more problematic cases, to improve customer relationships.
Some barristers can also take on Public Access work, but to do this they must have taken a special training course.
Any practicing solicitor will be regulated by The Law Society of England and Wales, and they have to pay a yearly fee to this body. Any complaints related to an individual solicitor are handled by the Legal Ombudsman.
Barristers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board and solicitor advocates use a code of practice very similar to the Bar Code of Conduct.
Most people hope they will never need the assistance of a solicitor or barrister but whilst it is possible for members of the general public to represent themselves in court, it is not always a good option because solicitors and barristers have spent years and years researching the law and how to argue a case. Cutting the legal profession out may help you save some cash at the start of a case, but could lose you far more in the long run. That’s not to say that some people don’t win a case by self representation, but the figures aren’t high.
To find a solicitor in your area, try a geographically based web search such as ‘solicitors Salisbury‘ or ‘solicitors Andover‘ in a search engine.