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The Times
December 22 1999

 

The Bar provides cheapest lawyers

BY FRANCES GIBB, LEGAL EDITOR

BARRISTERS launched a price war against solicitors yesterday, claiming that they are cheaper to hire and can cost half as much as solicitors.

In a new round of rivalry between the two branches of the legal profession, the Bar published research that shows that its fees are lower. The branches are in competition, now that solicitors can obtain advocacy rights in all courts.

The Bar called on the Law Society to introduce a rule obliging solicitors to inform the public of the comparative costs between using a barrister and an in-house solicitor.

The research, in a report The Economic Case for the Bar, deals with civil privately-funded work - about two thirds of all legal work done by the Bar. It shows that solicitors' hourly rates range from £80 an hour for an assistant solicitor in the North of England to £171 an hour for a London partner. The cost of junior barristers with less than ten years' experience in London was between 25 per cent and 50 per cent lower than the cost of an assistant solicitor. A barrister with less than five years' experience costs £60 an hour.

At senior levels, the gap closes, with barristers up to 15 per cent less expensive. A barrister in London with more than ten years' experience charges an average of £150 an hour, compared with just over £160.

The move is aimed at putting over the message to the public that far from being "fat cats", barristers are cheaper than solicitor-advocates. Solicitors are in a powerful position because the public must go through them. People generally cannot brief a barrister directly.

Bruce Houlder, QC, chairman of the Bar's public affairs committee, said: "If solicitors do not draw this fact to their clients' attention, then they are taking advantage of clients' ignorance."

The chief reason for the different charges is that solicitors have much higher overheads than barristers, who are self-employed.

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