Solicitors and barristers: the differences
Solicitors and barristers: the differences
Victoria’s legal profession is divided into two distinct branches – solicitors and barristers.
If you need help with a legal matter, your first point of contact will usually be a solicitor. Barristers usually do most of their work in court. Either a solicitor or a barrister can represent you in court. Usually, a solicitor ‘briefs’ a barrister to appear on your behalf in court. However, for certain types of work (e.g. advice and representation in minor criminal cases), a barrister may agree to represent you in court without being briefed by a solicitor.
Before being allowed to practise as a barrister in Victoria, a solicitor must pass an entrance exam. They need to then complete a nine-month ‘reading’ period, which gives them the chance to develop the skills they need for their new role under the supervision of a mentor and senior mentor. During this period, they complete a course that runs for about nine weeks and covers court and trial practice, advocacy, effective communication, decision making, how to run a sole practice, ethics and professional responsibility.
Where the term ‘lawyer’ is used in this chapter, it refers to both barristers and solicitors. Reference to either a ‘barrister’ or a ‘solicitor’ means only that branch of the profession, not all lawyers.
