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Solicitors

Hi guys,

Was just curious to know..If someone was to label themselves a personal injury solicitor, does that mean they are required to go to court if needed? or do they just assign a barrister to do all the advocacy, and prepare the info for the barrister? Also, how often do solicitors go to court?? Is it compulsory?

Thanks
Personal injury solicitors will appoint a specialist lawyer or barrister or go to court themselves to present the case
Why?
Are you involved in a case?
Do you want to be a solicitor and not go to court?
A bit more info please
It is unusual for solicitors to go court themselves in personal injury litigation. It happens now and again with Stage 3 hearings (straightforward hearings where the only issue in dispute is the level of damages; they take about 10 minutes), but virtually never with contested trials. It's slightly more common for solicitors to do interim hearings, but even that is relatively unusual. Generally speaking the solicitor will instruct a barrister to do advocacy in personal injury litigation.

Solicitors in other areas of law go to court more often, depending on the area and their specific practice.
Reply 3
Avatar for artymaniac
artymaniac
OP
13
Hi,
No Im just exploring career options, and was considering personal injury.
Original post by Sammylou40
Personal injury solicitors will appoint a specialist lawyer or barrister or go to court themselves to present the case
Why?
Are you involved in a case?
Do you want to be a solicitor and not go to court?
A bit more info please
Reply 4
Avatar for artymaniac
artymaniac
OP
13
Ok thank you for your response.
Original post by Crazy Jamie
It is unusual for solicitors to go court themselves in personal injury litigation. It happens now and again with Stage 3 hearings (straightforward hearings where the only issue in dispute is the level of damages; they take about 10 minutes), but virtually never with contested trials. It's slightly more common for solicitors to do interim hearings, but even that is relatively unusual. Generally speaking the solicitor will instruct a barrister to do advocacy in personal injury litigation.

Solicitors in other areas of law go to court more often, depending on the area and their specific practice.
Solicitors do not tend to go to court. Instead they will advise their client on what to do, if it is a large claim then it could be referred to a barrister by the solicitor, however, in some cases solicitors can go to court for their client, this will only be for small claims and probably won't go further than the Magistrates. In which case a solicitor is not required to go but may, they don't tend to.

Sir. TooJender-Vagine-Willie :smile:
It is very important to understand that litigation is not just a matter of rocking up at court and winging it. There can be an enormous amount of work that goes into winning a personal injury claim.

It does depend on how complex or high value the case is, but for many cases arguing in front of the judge is only a small part of the work that is needed to win the case. No barrister could just rock up at court and win a medical negligence case against a brain surgeon for example.

Litigation involves a disclosure process under which both sides have to disclose large volumes of documents which might be relevant to the case. This can involve involve going through thousands of documents in an attempt to try and find something which proves negligence - for example if the claimant is trying to prove that a local authority defendant knew there was a danger at the playground where little Timmy was injured. There are also often arguments about what documents the parties have to hand over and what they don't.

There are medical reports that have to be organised, and the parties may need to exchange expert reports.

Witness statements need to be taken from all of the witnesses, and witness statements will need to be exchanged with the other side before trial.

Some solicitors will go to court often, some might go occasionally, many won't go at all. It would depend on the practice area and the sort of firm you are working for.
(edited 6 years ago)

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