Conveyancing Brisbane

You could draw the medical analogy that a Solicitor is like a General Practitioner and the Barrister is the Consultant Surgeon. There are many differences, but the gap is narrowing.
Barristers automatically have higher rights of audience, that is they can appear in the High Court and Court of Appeal simply because they are Barristers. A Solicitor cannot but one may, with the necessary experience, become a Solicitor Advocate and gain such higher rights of audience.
Solicitors are, typically, employed by or partners in a firm. They may also be employed in-house by a company. Barristers, on the other hand, are self-employed. They belong to one of the four Inns of Court and group together in Chambers, but they are all independent and rely upon referrals for work from Solicitors (and work assigned to them by the clerk of chambers if the solicitor does not specify a particular barrister when submitting a brief)
Barristers do not have clients as such – a solicitor would brief or instruct a barrister to appear in court or advise on a particular point of law (or indeed the value or ‘quantum’ of a particular case) respectively.To do this the solicitor will provide the barrister with a precis of the case, relevant documents and detailed instructions of what is required of the barrister.
The difference in the respective fees between the professions is not so glaringly obvious anymore, except at the much higher levels, such as QC. Solicitor Advocates can, however, become QCs, so this is again becoming less of a difference.
Solicitor and Barrister training is the same up to degree level – Law degree or Common Professional Exam after a degree in a different discipline – but then they diverge. To be a solicitor you would complete the Legal Practice Course (LPC) which is a one-year intensive course covering the main practice areas of Drafting, Research, Advocacy, Interviewing and Negotiation (DRAIN skills) as well as more specific topics such as Conveyancing and Litigation. At this point Barristers do a similar one-year course called the Bar Finals.
Thereafter a would-be Solicitor needs to find a Training Contract (formerly known as ‘Articles’) where he or she will work in a firm of solicitors as a trainee for 2 years. During this 2 year period he or she will have to complete further courses such as ethics, management, etc. The Law Society sets a minimum salary for trainee solicitors, but this is not very high. After the training contract the trainee applies for admission to the roll and qualifies as a Solicitor.
A Barrister completes a one-year pupillage after bar finals, essentially shadowing an experienced Barrister before admission to the bar. An important part of qualifying as a Barrister (believe it or not) is dinner at the Inns of Court. A pupil Barrister must have dinner at the Inns of Court 24 times (I think that’s the right number) before he or she can be admitted.
One final and more observable difference is that Barristers wear a wig in court, Solicitors do not. Whilst this would appear trivial, it is quite a bone of contention, as the Barrister is considered by some to have an unfair advantage in looking more authoritative (say to a jury) than a Solicitor.

Varyingly warped views of Justice and priorities.

Both are lawyers.

A Barrister argues cases ‘at the Bar’ – i.e. in court. A Solicitor does all the other types of law.

Richard