Are Solicitors and Barristers like lawyers in the U.S.?

We seem to be adopting more advertising for those wanting to sue when they have accidents. Less so for the more (imo) 'normal' legal services.

Yes, they earn good money, especially the Barristers. My son is currently studying to be a Barrister and while for him, it's all about the money, for me, I can't wait to see him in his wig and gown.

The law on how solicitors and barristers operate, how they can advertise and what they can do has changed in recent years.

Originally - a solicitor was the person you went to with a legal problem and if the case had to go to court then a barrister was hired to represent you in court.

Then a few years ago the law was changed so that solicitors could represent their own clients in court in some cases and also so that they could become judges - prior to that you had to be a barrister before becoming a judge. I believe the law has recently changed so that barristers can now be the initial point of contact, bypassing the need for a solicitor.

I those old days barristers and solicitors were not allowed to advertise. That too has changed, but you don't see many doing so - apart from muted adverts in local papers saying "Blogs, Smyth and Jones - solicitors for 250 yrs."

If you do some searching you'll see that we don't, yet, have quite the same competitive culture for general legal work.

On the other hand - injury lawyers has become a highly competitive area - try searching for some of those perhaps.

I think you'll find they usually advertise as "injury lawyers" - often claims are handled by legal executives, who are not qualified solicitors.

I'm sure google will help you find the info you need.

Oh yes - and don't quote me on this - I am not a lawyer! My father was - but he's been dead for 16 years and things change.

They're invariably called either "injury lawyers" or "personal injury lawyers" (not "accident injury lawyers") and that's how they advertise.

The word "lawyers", in the UK, unless specified otherwise, is both intended and taken to mean solicitors.

There's a sort of analogy between GP's (family doctors) and consultants (specialists). In the UK, although you can go directly to a consultant as a private patient, almost nobody does, but gets referred by their GP. It's similar with solicitors and barristers, but even more so.

As mentioned above, the rules have been changed and private clients are actually now allowed to go directly to a barrister, though very few people know it anyway and it would occur to almost nobody. In reality, the only people who do are (for example) surveyors and property developers who might go directly to a barrister specialising in building law, companies with a tax advisor on board who might go directly to a tax barrister, and things like this. Very few barristers get "ordinary clients" going to them directly, and if taking a case to court would still need (by law) an accompanying solicitor anyway.

The distinction between the two professions is very gradually becoming blurred, as these days there are some specialist "advocate solicitors" (with appropriate post-grad training and qualifications) who have the right of audience in the "county courts" without needing to employ a barrister. But barristers are basically specialists, and for the most part handle "court work".

They also take virtually the same exams, these days, to qualify (though under different names!), but their "vocational training" is very different.

I live in New England too and a lot of the English here is the same as "old" England. They say "rubbish" instead of trash and "carriages" instead of "shopping carts". And a "water fountain" is a "water bubbler". :rolleyes:

SPEEK ENGRISH!!