Select an area of expertise to find out more about our experience.
Find out more about our barristers and business support teams here.
Select an area of expertise to find out more about our experience.
Find out more about our barristers and business support teams here.
The Direct Public Access scheme introduced in 2004 enables barristers to be instructed directly from or on behalf of a member of the public, also known as a lay client.
Prior to 2004, it was necessary to instruct a firm of solicitors or third party. Many of our barristers are qualified to accept Direct Access instructions.
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) regulates barristers and has produced guidance on the Public Access scheme for lay clients. You can access this guidance on the BSB website.
Direct Access is suitable for a variety of cases or legal disputes. For example advice on: employment rights following termination of a contract of employment; settlement agreements; professional disciplinary matters; commercial agreements and termination rights.
Types of work that are suitable include advisory, drafting as well as representation at hearings. It is important to note that in general this does not cover conducting litigation e.g. issuing proceedings or filing court documents.
Our Direct Access qualified barristers are under a duty when considering your case to advise if it is in your best interests, or in the interests of justice, that you first instruct a solicitor.
Control on costs: instructing a barrister directly may give you significant cost savings as you will only be instructing one lawyer rather than two which would have been the case if you used a solicitor as well.
Our clerks will advise you on how much the barrister’s fees will be and whether the fees will be charged on an hourly basis or for a fixed fee. You will be provided with an estimate of the time and fees that are likely to be charged and kept updated at all times so that there are no surprises. Generally barristers have lower overheads than solicitors so our barrister fees are very competitive.
Saves time/more efficient: rather than a two-step process of instructing a firm of solicitors and channelling your instructions through them it is quicker to directly instruct the barrister.
Our friendly and experienced team of clerks will assist you in choosing the right barrister for your case in terms of appropriate seniority and expertise.
If you would like to find out more about instructing one of our barristers, please get in touch with our clerking team.
Call +44 (0) 20 7410 2000 or click here to email
