Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Law - Essay Example (Zander, 2004, p 701). While solicitors are the ones who hire barristers and apprise them of the facts of the case, they were not permitted right of audience in the higher courts, therefore this often entailed double the costs for clients, since they had to hire a solicitor and a barrister as well, and in difficult cases to be contested in the highest courts they were also obliged to hire a Queen’s Counsel. Since these legal professionals charge by the hour and costs are particularly high for Queens Counsels who are allowed audience in the High Court and Crown Courts, this has often pushed the option of litigation right out if the province of poorer clients. Barristers function on the lines of the â€Å"cab rank† principle which could be projected as an advantage, however the reality is that in some cases there are returned briefs and the question of an unprepared barrister appearing in Court on behalf of a client instead of a solicitor who is better acquainted with the case, which â€Å"may be a major source of unfairness and poor justice for offenders and litigants.†(Darbyshire, 2001, p 263). Moreover, as demonstrated in the Report by the National Association of CAB (www.unece.org), few clients are properly informed about costs and this is part of the reason why the fees associated with processing a case are most often the cause of customer complaints. Duplication of costs has been inevitable because both the solicitor and the barrister must be paid and it is often difficult for a client to comprehend why he is faced with the necessity of paying two people for one case. Moreover, the lack of audience in the higher Courts has been the biggest grievance of solicitors, who are often the best acquainted with the facts of the case after their close association with the clients. It is the solicitors who brief the barristers but since there is no guarantee that the barrister who has been briefed will be free to appear in court