Civil law direct access barristers.

The civil work routinely placed with access barristers on our panel includes:

• Contract and commercial disputes — breach of contract, supply and distribution, agency and SME shareholder claims.
• Debt recovery — letter before action, Part 7 and Part 8 claims, default and summary judgment, set aside and enforcement.
• Property and land — TOLATA, beneficial interest, boundary, easements, restrictive covenants and Land Registry references.
• Landlord and tenant — Housing Act possession, deposit claims, disrepair, service charge and forfeiture.
• Inheritance Act and contentious probate — 1975 Act claims, executor disputes and proprietary estoppel.
• Professional negligence against solicitors, surveyors, accountants and tax advisers.
• Consumer Rights Act claims, motor finance and FOS-related work, defective goods and misrepresentation.
• Insolvency-adjacent civil work — statutory demands, bankruptcy and winding up petitions.
• Civil appeals to the Circuit Judge and to the High Court, with skeleton drafting and oral advocacy.

A Public Access civil barrister can take a matter from the very first conference through to trial. The work usually begins with an advice on merits, then moves into drafting the documents and representing the client at each stage of the timetable. Counsel will draft the Particulars of Claim or Defence, settle Part 18 requests, take statements from litigants and witnesses, prepare instructions to expert witnesses, negotiate with the other side and represent you in court at directions, summary judgment, interim applications and the final hearing.

What direct access barristers cannot do, unless individually authorised to conduct litigation, is correspond with the court office in your name day to day or issue claims as the solicitor on the record. The court accepts filings from litigants in person every day and counsel will tell you precisely what to file, by when, and in what form. For the majority of civil claims this works seamlessly and keeps the legal services bill to a fraction of a traditional solicitor-led model.

Briefs reach our clerking team by email or through the website. A clerk reads the brief on the same working day, runs conflict checks and identifies suitable Public Access civil counsel by experience, availability and fee level. You receive a written shortlist with indicative fees — almost always a fixed fee for a defined scope, occasionally hourly rates for longer advisory work — and a recommended next step.

Once you choose counsel, a BSB-compliant client care letter sets out the scope, the fee, the payment terms and the timetable. Fees are paid into the chambers client account before work begins. From that point on you deal with the barrister directly. The barrister you instruct on the brief is the barrister who attends the hearing.

Direct access civil work suits SMEs running a contract or debt dispute who want specialist legal professionals on a defined budget. It suits landlords managing possession, disrepair and service charge work. It suits families pursuing or defending an Inheritance Act claim. It suits in-house teams who need expert legal advice on a one-off matter without engaging a panel firm. And it suits litigants in person who want to put their case on a professional footing without carrying the full overhead of a solicitor retainer.

If your matter sits outside what is sensible on direct access, we will tell you and point you to a solicitor instead. Please contact the clerking team with a short outline of the dispute and the next deadline.