What’s the difference between a “lawyer,” a “barrister,” and a “solicitor”?

A lawyer is just anybody who has been admitted by the court where they practise. In other words, both solicitors and barristers are both “lawyers”.

But what’s the difference between a solicitor and a barrister? That distinction is mostly historical nowadays, but there are still some important practical differences.

A solicitor is an all-purpose lawyer. You can think of them a bit like a G.P., although increasingly solicitors do specialise nowadays. They can accept trust money, and they can employ other lawyers to work for them. Solicitors can do things like filing documents on your behalf, and accept documents from the other side in your case.

Tom is a barrister, which is a person who specialises in appearing in court for people and advising them about litigation-related topics. You can think about it a bit like having a surgeon or other medical specialist: you need the G.P. first to get access to the specialist.

A barrister is a sole practitioner, independent of all other lawyers. They may (as Tom does) have a room on a floor with other specialist barristers in their area of law, but each of those barristers is working independently of one another.

In NSW, when a barrister appears in a higher court (the District or Supreme Court, the High Court, and some of the specialist courts like the Land and Environment Court), a barrister will wear a gown, and often also a horsehair wig (yes, it’s sometimes itchy).

One important distinction between solicitors and barristers is that a barrister in NSW can’t turn down a brief that has been offered by a solicitor (provided the fee is acceptable, the barrister is available, and it falls within their skill set). This is an important protection to make sure that everybody can get a lawyer - even people who might have been accused of something terrible.

Barristers can’t accept service of documents on your behalf, can’t file things for you, and usually can’t accept trust money. Barristers can technically accept briefs directly from individual clients nowadays, but Tom does not accept this kind of brief.

You might hear some lawyers refer to themselves as a “solicitor and barrister”. This is technically true for people who became lawyers in NSW between 1963 and 2015 – indeed, Tom was himself admitted as a solicitor and barrister (in 2007) – since before 2015, lawyers were admitted as “solicitors and barristers” on the roll of practitioners. Since 2015, all lawyers in NSW have been admitted as “Australian Legal Practitioners”.

Frankly, although it’s technically accurate, it’s kind of misleading to refer to yourself as a solicitor and barrister, since in NSW you can only hold a Practising Certificate as either a solicitor OR a barrister. To hold a Practising Certificate as a barrister you also need to complete the Bar exams, and do the Bar Practice Course, in addition to all the requirements which are necessary to just get admitted.

The bottom line is this: if you want someone to appear for you in court, or if you want specialist advice about court-related issues, then you might want a specialist barrister. At the very least, you get the benefit of a legal team, which is incredibly valuable, especially if you are facing serious allegations. If you’re not sure, go to a solicitor, and suggest to them that you’ve been thinking about getting a barrister; they should be able to steer you in the right direction.

Does Tom recommend any particular solicitors?

Not usually.

The choice of a solicitor is a very personal decision which is affected by whether you are comfortable with their personality and the way they give their advice. Different solicitors charge fees at different rates, and provide different services which you may or may not be comfortable with. Tom works with top solicitors across the whole criminal justice system.

What are Tom’s fees?

Fees are available on request from Tom’s clerk, and are subject to a yearly review. Fees are set at a level which makes it possible for Tom to maintain a workload in which he has the capacity to focus on each of the cases he has at any one time.

A lot of work in criminal law is done on a “fixed fee” basis rather than charging by the hour, meaning that you pay the same if the matter takes 20 hours or 100 hours. This is one of the more transparent ways of charging for legal services, since you generally have a pretty good idea in advance what it will cost.

A common model, especially for straightforward matters, is a fixed fee for preparation of the matter, and then a fee-per-day that the matter is in court.

For some matters it might be possible to set a fixed fee up to a particular stage - for example, if you are charged with an indictable offence, it would be typical for there to be a fixed fee for the matter up to the stage when the matter is committed for trial or sentence (or withdrawn, or a plea to a lesser sentence, or whatever outcome has been able to be negotiated). There would then be a separate fee per day that the matter is in court for sentence, or for trial.

Court fees are typically charged per day for anything that isn’t just a procedural appearance. This is because, even if your sentence matter or bail application is likely to be quick, Tom has to set the whole day aside for your matter since your case might still be waiting around until just before the end of the day.

You should expect that if you want to engage Tom as your barrister, you’ll need to pay fees “into trust”, meaning that the solicitor holds Tom’s fees in advance until any invoices are due. This practice of getting fees into trust is pretty much universal for criminal lawyers.

Will Tom do “no win, no fee” arrangements?

No.

Does Tom appear in X matters? What about Y?

If it’s criminal law related, the answer is “probably”. You can find some more examples of the kinds of work Tom does here. If it’s not clear, your solicitor can contact Tom or his clerk to find out.