ABM
Solicitors & Advocates
Your friendly local one-stop legal service
|
|
|
Advocacy is defined as “the active support of a cause or course of action.” An Advocate is a “person who speaks on behalf of another in a court of law”. However under the English legal system whilst a Solicitor can represent a client at Tribunals and in the Magistrates and County Courts, only an Advocate and/or a Barrister can represent you in the Higher Courts. Within the legal community this is often referred to as having gained “Higher Rights”.
What does this mean to you on a practical level?
Well for most matters it should not make a significant difference whether you use a Solicitor or an Advocate particularly for those matters referred to in the profession as “non-contentious” matters such as Contracts, Conveyancing, Landlord & Tennant issues, and Wills & Probate, in which there is no “opponent”.
However if the matter at hand is likely to mean a court appearance or require a judgement of some kind to settle the matter i.e. is a “contentious” issue then the whole scene changes. Many solicitors would rather call upon the expert knowledge of a barrister to present the issues at court (something they will have to do, if the matter is to be dealt with in the Higher Courts in any event), however the general public cannot approach a barrister directly even if they have represented them previously on another matter, they must be “introduced” via a solicitor. An advocate on the other hand is a solicitor with “higher rights” and there is no need for this “introduction”.
The Solicitor will require you to pay their fees and there will also be the fees for the Barrister, a double whammy if you like. An Advocate on the other hand having no need to “introduce” a Barrister, will only charge for their services which are likely to be significantly less than the double whammy referred to above. The Solicitor will have to “brief” the Barrister on your matter in order to bring them up-to-date, this can take some time, all of which will be billable; an Advocate will be familiar with the details of your matter from day one.
|
|
