How Public Access works, fees, and what to send before a first meeting

How Public Access works

Traditionally, solicitors ran “High Street” offices and employed Barristers for specialist work for which the solicitors were not competent. Barristers only worked on instruction from solicitors, so did not compete with solicitors. There was a “cab rank” rule which meant that Barristers could not refuse certain types of work.

Nowadays, members of the public can find the specialists they need through the internet and social media – local service is no longer so important. Some Barristers have been licensed to work directly with the public. You contract with a single Barrister, not a firm, but the Barrister may employ other people to assist. Some Barristers are not licensed to “conduct litigation” and limit themselves to advisory work; some provide effectively the full litigation service.

Direct public access to licensed Barristers works just like access to any professional service – you make contact, tell the barrister what you want and (if they can do it) they contract with you for the specified work. The cab-rank rule does not apply, because there has to be an assessment of whether the individual barrister is qualified for your work. Barristers are individual specialists and do not advise on all areas of law. If one Direct Access Barrister cannot help you, they may be able to recommend others. They can recommend that you use accountants, solicitors, financial advisors or investigators if appropriate. If they start work on your case, they will always keep your case under review and if necessary they will insist that you employ a solicitor.

There are differences from the way solicitors work:

• Because barristers never hold your money they cannot take “money on account” so do not have the overhead expense of regulation and insurance against loss of your money; so they will tend to carefully specify the work you need in stages for a fixed fee. If the work will take a very long time and you agree an hourly rate you and the barrister may use a third party service to hold money on account of fees.
• Because solicitors will hold your money, from which they can take their fees as soon as they create an invoice, solicitors tend to provide an all-in service which can be expensive; more recently the idea of “unbundled service” has come about where solicitors can compete with the economy of barristers on fees by agreeing to do only essential parts of the work you need.
• Barristers cannot conduct work on “legal aid” except through solicitors. They will not conduct conveyancing or other transactional work.
• Barristers are often in Court hearings, so cannot usually answer telephone calls, but will deal with messages and emails when they are free.

Fees

I am licensed for Direct Access. I do accept instruction from solicitors. My Direct Public Access work consists mainly of advising and drafting – but I will be qualified to conduct litigation which includes obtaining Grant of Probate. My specialities are death and taxes – Wills, Intestacy, Inheritance tax, trusts, and Probate.

What to send before a first meeting

To cut the cost to you, my website is arranged to allow you to submit most of the necessary information online before the first meeting. I will then assess – free of charge – whether I am able to carry out the work you want, and whether direct access is appropriate for you as an individual. Often this assessment can be done without a meeting, and indeed I can provide a quotation to draft wills in straightforward cases from the information you provide online. However, my questionnaires are designed to flag situations where a meeting is necessary, and ensure that I will ask for a conference. My preferred method for the first meeting is by video conference – I can send you a link for an online meeting. If you are more comfortable with meeting face to face, appointments can be made at offices in London, Manchester, Portsmouth, Leeds or York – but my availability may involve delay if an in person meeting is required. I do not discriminate and will try to make any reasonable adjustments to accommodate clients with disability, so in exceptional cases I can travel to meet you subject to the expense of travel.

Nigel Shepherd
31^st August 2026