Do I need a solicitor?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and the answer depends on what stage you are at rather than on how serious the charge is. This page says which is which, including the cases where the answer is that you should not instruct him.
The difference, in plain terms
- What a solicitor does
- Takes the case on the record, gathers and serves the evidence, corresponds with the court and the prosecution, instructs experts, traces witnesses, and handles legal aid. They are your point of contact for everything administrative.
- What a barrister does
- Advises on the law and the evidence, drafts the written arguments, and stands up in court. In the Crown Court the advocacy is almost always a barrister’s, whether a solicitor instructed them or you did.
- What a King’s Counsel is
- A senior barrister appointed for advocacy in the most serious and complex cases. In a heavy case a KC usually leads, with a junior barrister doing much of the written work.
What Imran cannot do for you
Imran Shafi KC is a barrister, not a solicitor, and he is not authorised to conduct litigation. He cannot go on the court record, cannot issue applications in your name, cannot serve documents for you and cannot deal with the court as your representative. If your case needs those things done, it needs a solicitor, and no arrangement with him changes that.
Which one applies to you
- You have been arrested and are at the police station
- Ask for the duty solicitor. It is free to you whatever your means, it is available at any hour, and it is faster than anything that begins with an email. Do not wait to arrange something better.
- You might be eligible for legal aid
- You need a solicitor. Legal aid cannot be used to instruct a barrister directly, so going direct would mean paying privately for something that might be funded.
- Your case is heavy, or moving fast
- You need a solicitor, and then a barrister. Someone has to be on the record, serve documents and deal with the court, and a barrister instructed directly cannot do any of it.
- You want advice, a conference, or representation at one hearing
- You can instruct him directly under Public Access, without a solicitor. This is the case where going direct genuinely saves you a step rather than removing one you needed.
- You already have a solicitor and want a silk
- Ask a solicitor to contact his PA. That is the ordinary route and it is how most of his work arrives.
Regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Authorised to accept Public Access instructions. Not authorised to conduct litigation.
More on going direct: instructing a barrister without a solicitor.