In my last blog post, we looked at some of the advantages of merging the two main legal professions, solicitors and barristers. This is already the case in some countries, where you just hire a lawyer for legal issues, regardless of what you need them to do. Naturally, you would choose one that specialises in what you needed, but there are not two separate professions. In this blog post, we will still be focusing on merging solicitors and barristers, but will be thinking about the disadvantages of this.
However, before we look at the disadvantages of merging the two professions, we will start by quickly reviewing the differences between solicitors and barristers. Solicitors work closely with their clients, but it is less common for them to represent their client in court, although they may do so in the lower ones. Solicitors are also used for drafting legal documents, such as contracts and wills. They will specialise in a few areas of law and be experts on this.
On the other hand, barristers are less likely to talk directly with their clients, usually communicating through solicitors or similar. They will receive a brief from a solicitor with all the details of the case and use this to prepare for a court appearance. Barristers spend a lot of time in courts, arguing cases for their clients. They will usually have to wear robes and a traditional wig, although this may sometimes be relaxed. Like solicitors, barristers will have an area of expertise that they focus on.
Solicitors and barristers are also trained in different ways. They will both start with either a law degree or any other degree and a law conversion course called a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL). Solicitors will then go on to do vacation schemes, followed by a Legal Practice Course and a training contract. Finally, they will need to pass the Solicitors Qualifying Exam.
Barristers carry out several mini-pupillages after their degree or GDL, then take the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC). After this, they will do a full pupillage for one year before they are qualified.
What are the Disadvantages?
One disadvantage of merging the solicitor and barrister professions is that there might be a loss of expertise. Solicitors and barristers deal with different areas and stages of legal issues. If the two are combined, there is only one type of profession, so there will be a single approach. However, solicitors and barristers can currently look separately at a case brought to them and offer their own expertise, based on their training and experience. For example, a solicitor might approach a problem looking at documents, whereas a barrister would be considering how to represent the client in court.
In addition, solicitors and barristers will specialise in particular areas. For example, they may just focus on family law, property law or contract construction. This is particularly noticeable with solicitors, as they may well deal with wills, for example, which will only be in court if they are disputed. However, many solicitors specialise in this, so they have a lot more experience than someone from a mix of the two professions would have. Of course, if the two professions were combined, some might still choose to focus on a particular area and either reject or refer work that would require court representation.
Another disadvantage of combining the two professions is that clients would only get one opinion on their legal issues. Sometimes it can be very useful to be given two potential ways of approaching a problem, as this gives the client more choice about what action they would like to take. Alternatively, the client might appreciate getting a second opinion on what they have been told, which isn’t possible if they only have one legal professional to discuss the case with.
A potential issue with there just being one legal profession is that there would be no cab rank rule. This currently applies to barristers and means that they must take the first case that is offered to them unless they have a very good reason to reject it (such as conflict of interest). Without this rule, some defendants might struggle to find legal representation, leaving them at a significant disadvantage in court.
Finally, one argument against merging the two professions is that there is no need for change. The existing system of having both solicitors and barristers is working fine and combining the two could just lead to unnecessary confusion.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, merging the two legal professions is not without issues. I hope that you now feel more confident about why! In my next blog post, we will be looking at some of the aids to statutory interpretation, so check back in two weeks for that!
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