Solicitors are regulated by The Law Society . Barristers Barristers are the consultants of the English legal system. They are the only ones allowed to appear in the appeal courts and in most cases in the High Court. Most specialise in particular areas of the law such as Crime, Family or Personal Injury. If you want advice from a barrister, you must go to a solicitor first because barristers are not allowed to have direct access to lay clients except in very limited circumstances.
All barristers are sole practitioners but they gather together to share facilities and expenses.
The place where a group of barristers gathers together in this way is known as barristers' chambers. Barristers are regulated by the Bar Council . Since 1950 the services of solicitors and barristers have been made available for those who could not afford them by Legal Aid. Subject to a means test and a merits test for their particular case, individual clients were provided with advice and litigation services from any solicitor willing to take on the work. There was increasing pressure on the legal aid budget over the last decade leading to fundamental changes in the legal aid system brought in by the Lord Chancellor .