Lay People in the Legal System

AS Law

1. There are about 90,000 solicitors practising in England and Wales

2. They are controlled by the Law Society

3. To qualify as a solicitor you must:-

- Have a degree in law or done a law conversion year onto another degree and then take a Common Professional Examination.

- Have one year in a legal practice course

- Training Contract

4. A training contract is a period where someone spends 2 years at a law firm to gain experience after gaining a degree.

5. The criticisms of the solicitor training process are:-

- The cost of the course

- Non law graduates do only one year of formal law

- Over supply who have passed the LPC but cannot get a training contract

6. Most qualifying solicitors will work in a private practice in a solicitors firm. The type of work done by a solicitor depends on what sort of firm they are with. They are likely to spend time interviewing clients and negotiating on a clients behalf. They also deal with paper work such as writing letters, drafting contracts, leases and other legal documents.

7. Conveyancing is the act of transferring houses, other buildings and land.

8. In Griffiths v Dawson the client sued the solicitor for negligence in and out p of court work.

9. The Legal Services Ombudsman was created to examine complaints against solicitors and barristers where the professions' own regulatory bodies did not provide a satisfactory answer.

10. In Hall v Simons the law lords decided that it was no longer in the public interest that advocates should be sued for negligence.

11. There are approximately 10,000 barristers in England