Little-known 2004 law lets clients pay for one legal expert, not two, says Barrister Connect.
Since 2004, members of the public in England and Wales have had the legal right to instruct a barrister directly, without a solicitor managing the case first. Yet the option remains one of the least used in the profession.
Most people don’t know the right exists, so they default to the traditional route, adding a solicitor on top of a barrister without comparing the two.
Barrister Connect, one such service, says the saving comes from paying once for the specific work needed, rather than paying a second professional to manage a case from start to finish.
The Bar Council opened direct access, also called public access, in 2004, letting members of the public instruct a barrister for advice, drafting and court representation without a solicitor as an intermediary.
Two decades on, awareness remains low, in part because solicitors have no obvious reason to mention the alternative and, until recently, there was no easy way for people to find a barrister on their own. That’s changed with services such as Barrister Connect, which list barristers who take on direct access work and let clients search, compare and instruct one online, with fees agreed upfront.
Barrister Connect quotes a fixed fee for a defined piece of work before any work begins. A one-hour consultation with a barrister typically starts at around £250 plus VAT. A written opinion on a case’s prospects runs from £750 to £2,500, and hearings range from roughly £750 for an hour to £2,500 for a full day, depending on complexity.
Clients also don’t have to buy a whole case. Under what’s called “unbundled” legal help, they can pay for a single consultation, a specific document such as a witness statement or consent order, representation at one hearing, or a review of paperwork from the other side, and are told upfront which of those a case actually needs.
The company is equally upfront about where the model doesn’t apply.
Direct access barristers cannot take legal aid funding or work with legal expenses insurance (LEI)-funded claims, cannot offer no-win-no-fee arrangements and do not handle criminal defence, aside from some motoring offences assessed case by case. Barrister Connect says it will confirm within a day of first contact whether a case is suitable, rather than take on work it can’t fully cost.
Rory Nunn, Head of Direct Access at Barrister Connect, said: “In 2004, finding and instructing a direct access barrister could be a daunting prospect. Today, technology has transformed the process, enabling businesses and the general public to find the right barrister, instruct them directly and pay only for the legal expertise they actually need. That change is turning direct access from a little-known alternative route to legal support into a much more mainstream option for the public. As awareness grows, more people are recognising that they can access specialist legal expertise without having to incur the costs of using a solicitor to find and instruct a barrister on their behalf.”
The quote now has something to land on rather than floating on its own. Worth a read-through for length too; it’s sitting a bit north of 500 words with the addition, so there may be a line elsewhere you’re happy to trim if it needs to come down.
