Legal Reform - facilitates direct access to barristers

Brendan Burgess

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73.—No professional code shall operate to prevent a barrister from
providing legal services in relation to a matter, other than a contentious
matter, where his or her instructions on that matter were
received directly from a person who is not a solicitor.


Section 75 requires the Authority to engage in a public consultation process, to be completed within 18 months of the
establishment of the Authority, and to provide a report to the Minister on—
....
• the implications of barristers being permitted to receive instructions directly from persons in contentious matters and the
reforms, whether administrative, legislative or to existing professional codes, that would be necessary to allow this.
 
This is what the [broken link removed] called for

21. First, the Competition Authority strongly recommends that the Bar Council’s current Direct Access Scheme –
whereby certain approved clients are allowed to approach barristers directly for legal advice - should be extended
to all members of the public. The option of going directly to a barrister for legal advice should not be reserved to
a few approved clients. Doing so imposes an additional cost on other clients who are obliged to retain a solicitor
in order to access legal advice from a barrister. From a competition perspective, direct access to barristers for
litigation would also be desirable but is not recommended at this time.
 
I'm reading "contentious" as meaning "adversarial" as in - going to Court.
The distinction may be between a matter under litigation and one where advice is sought on a point of law.

A client took direct legal advice from a Barrister on a point of planning law in relation to the issuing of Further Information.
It was contentious in a limited sense that we were annoyed at how a planning permission was going.

It was not contentious in that my client was not suing the Council.
I think that is possibly the distinction here.
 
Most barristers I know are not interested in direct access for clients.

A busy barrister jealously guards his/her time. Seeks to kept consultations to properly structured events with relevant witnesses and documeents present at a suitable time and place. They need to be able to concentrate on their paper work without the stream of interruptiions, queries, and "just quick calls" with which a solicitor is expected to cope
 
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