The Bar Direct Access Scheme—sometimes called Public Access—lets you go straight to a barrister for legal help without needing to hire a solicitor first. It’s a more straightforward and often more affordable way to get expert legal advice, help with paperwork, or representation in court.
Every case is different and so every case needs to be considered on its own merits. That said, there are a few common characteristics for cases which are suitable to be dealt with by direct access barristers:
1. You're comfortable with handling the day-to-day aspects of your case, such as dealing with the court or your opponent. This is important, because direct access barristers are instructed to deal with one piece of the work and then they move into the background until you ask them to do a further piece of work, whereas a solicitor would deal with all aspects of your case on a day-to-day basis.
2. You're familiar with the Civil Procedure Rules (link here) or the Family Procedure Rules (link here) and you can comply with them without too much difficulty. This is absolutely essential, because breaches of rules can damage your case or even lead to it being struck out and brought to an end.
3. Your case isn't high complex and doesn't involve thousands of documents. Barristers are highly skilled in taking huge bundles of documents and complex issues and turning them into a persuasive, winning argument. The challenge here isn't how complex the matter is, but how well you can present it to a barrister so that they can do their best work for you. The greater the complexity and the greater the number of documents involved, the more likely you are to need a solicitor to process that information and break it down so that a barrister can be as effective as possible for you.
Send us details of your case by using our contact form which you can either find here or by clicking the button at the top of this page. We don't need every single detail at this point, but we do need some detail about your case.
Once we have your details, we'll be in touch to get a bit more information from you so that we can fully understand your needs and what you need from one of our barristers.
After that, our friendly clerks will find the best barrister for your needs and make sure that they're available to do the work that you need. We'll then get quotes for a fixed fee from the barrister, and then pass that to you for you to make a decision.
Our barristers work on the basis of fixed prices for the work that you need them to do - no hourly-billing and nasty surprises here! You'll know the price upfront before you agree to the barrister doing work for you. In order to give a fixed price, it will be important for you to be clear about the exact scope of work you want the barrister to do. Then, you'll get a quote for the work for a one-off fixed price which includes the barrister's work and the admin costs associated with finding the right barrister for you.
Once you've agreed the quote, you'll receive terms and conditions to sign and a payment link to make payment in full by card or bank transfer. Please note: the terms of all barristers under the direct scheme are that they are not booked until both the terms are signed and payment is made in full. That means that you should sign and pay promptly to guarantee that you don't lose the barrister to somebody who agrees terms before you.