‘Direct access’, also referred to as ‘public access’, means that members of the public can instruct barristers directly for legal advice and representation without having to go through a solicitor or another intermediary professional first.

A barrister provides specialist legal advice and represents individual people and organisations in Courts and tribunals and through written legal advice.  In the past, before ‘direct access’, barristers in England & Wales were only hired by Solicitors to represent a case in Court and became involved once advocacy before a Court was needed.  This is still the case, but now, in addition, barristers who provide ‘direct access’ support can be directly engaged by a member of the public for legal advice or representation.  Barristers usually specialise in particular areas of law such as criminal law, chancery law (estates and trusts), commercial law, entertainment law, sports law and common law; which includes family law and divorce, housing and personal injury law.

Barristers offering the ‘ direct access’ route can advise you, in a face-to-face meeting, by telephone or in writing, about your case or your legal rights.  They can also draft documents for you, such as letters, court forms or other legal documents, and can represent you in court or in any other tribunal, disciplinary hearing or arbitration/mediation appointment.

Barristers offering ‘direct access’ can also recommend relevant experts and prepare instructions to expert witnesses.

Direct access barristers do not conduct litigation, meaning you need to gather evidence and other documents yourself, and file documents at court and sign letters.  Direct access barristers can advise you on these steps however, and draft documents for you to sign and lodge with the court.

The ‘direct access’ scheme doesn’t allow barrister to:

* issue court documents;

* contact witnesses or collect and investigate evidence;

* instruct an expert witness;

* handle your money;

* correspond with the other party to a dispute.

However, paralegals at PX Barristers can carry out any or all of these services on your behalf, and we will work closely with your appointed barrister to ensure every aspect of your case is delivered to perfection and on time.

No. ‘direct access’ means you can instruct barristers directly for legal advice and representation without having to go through a solicitor or another intermediary professional first.

The ‘direct access’ scheme means you benefit from cost and time savings by dealing with a barrister directly rather than through an intermediary.  You can also get advice from an expert barrister directly, which is particularly important if your case is urgent.

Most ‘direct access’ barristers work on a fixed-fee basis, and their hourly rates are reduced to what they charge in non-direct access work. Therefore, you benefit from expertise – at a reduced cost.

The ‘direct access’ route is best suited to clients who are prepared to carry out the administrative preparation for a case themselves. However, PX Barristers has been created specifically to help those clients who are keen to go down the ‘direct access’ route, yet don’t want to carry out the time-consuming and often challenging tasks themselves. Our paralegals will manage all these tasks for you!

Remember, barristers work differently to solicitors and they work in different ways. Barristers will expect to receive from you the paperwork in a good order and on time to enable them to prepare the case and are not available to provide day-to-day advice and information on the state of the case.  It will be your job to ‘conduct’ your case. But don’t be daunted by this – as this is exactly what PX Barristers exist to do.  Our paralegals can carry out the elements assigned to you, very cost-effectively to the traditional route of appointing a solicitor for these tasks.