How direct access can save you money

Instructing a barrister on a direct access basis could save you a great deal of money by comparison with instructing a solicitor. How much you save will depend on how much work you can complete yourself and how much assistance you require from the barrister. You may save money because of any or all of these factors:

• most obviously, you can get the assistance of the barrister without paying for the solicitor to instruct the barrister: you are cutting out the middleman;

• you agree in advance the price of each piece of work to be done, so you can keep firm control over the overall cost;

• you will be doing much of the work for which a solicitor would ordinarily charge you: examples include writing your own letters, preparing your own documents for disclosure, or drafting your own witness statements, preparing and copying your own bundles; of course, if you want, I can provide you with guidance on how to go about these tasks;

• much of the cost of litigation is racked up by solicitors sending correspondence to each other which does not really advance the case; with direct access, you only pay for the specific work which you ask your barrister to do for you; each task, and the cost of it, will be agreed with you in advance;

• some tasks can be done for you by the barrister rather than by a solicitor; examples including drafting an important letter, or a statement of case for the court, or instructions to an expert; a barrister is often cheaper than a solicitor of equivalent seniority, because barristers have much lower overheads than solicitors, and because if you instruct a barrister with specialist experience, he may be able to do the work more quickly.