John Flood and Avis Whyte (University of Westminster and University of Westminster – School of Law) has posted Straight There No Detours: Direct Access to Barristers on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
With
the inception of the Legal Services Act 2007 following the Clementi
Report on new ways of providing legal services in the UK, the Bar is
moving to alter the way it practices. Traditionally, the Bar has been a
referral profession relying on solicitors and other professionals to
instruct barristers when legal opinions or advocacy is sought. In
recent years the Bar has attempted to open the barristers’ profession
to more direct access from clients thus bypassing solicitors.This
has had a mixed reaction among barristers and barristers’ clerks. Some
see it as the route to a modern diverse profession while others see it
as potentially harming these traditional relationships between
barrister and solicitor that have been built up over many years. Among
solicitors this has been met by their own moves to become advocates in
the higher courts.The report presents findings from research
carried out among barristers, clerks, chambers chief executives, and
users. Data were collected via interview, survey, and documentary
sources. It shows that barristers represent value for money for clients
because of lower overheads than solicitors. But the current rules in
place that regulate how barristers carry out direct access work do more
to hinder than encourage users.The report concludes that since
the Legal Services Act will permit "alternative business structures"
which will directly compete with barristers, and solicitors, an
expansion of direct access work is one way of countering the effects of
these changes.