COURT APPEARANCES
Court Lawyers Explained
Court Lawyers may be generally divided into three separate categories:
- Court Solicitors | Attorneys | Advocates
- Barristers | Queen's Counsel | Senior Counsel | Junior Counsel
- Court Agents
Each category plays a distinctive role in the Australian Court system, summarised as follows:
- Court Solicitors (in some States called "Attorneys") appear as advocates in all Courts, especially in the "lower" Courts, such as Magistrates and Local Courts.
- Barristers (either as "Queen's Counsel", "Senior Counsel", "Junior Counsel" or simply "Counsel") appear as advocates in all Courts, especially in "superior" Courts, such as Federal, Supreme, District, County and Family Courts. They usually organise themselves into groups accommodated into Barristers Chambers.
- Court Solicitors also appear in Courts "instructing" or assisting Counsel in particular matters.
- Court Solicitors "brief" or instruct barristers to advise and appear as Counsel in all Courts, especially in superior Courts or in the more difficult or complex matters in lower Courts. Barristers in their role of Counsel normally expect their instructing solicitors to be present both in Chambers when conferring with clients and in Court "instructing" or assisting them during the course of a hearing. 1
- Court Agents (in some States called "Town Agents" or "City Agents") are solicitors who appear as advocates in Courts on behalf of other practising solicitors, especially in short matters and on an urgent basis, and in a special relationship of "principal/agent". 2
- Court Agents also accept full referrals of Court work from other solicitors in all Courts, especially from solicitors who normally prefer not to make court appearances themselves.
For further information, read this article Types of Counsel.
1 Any member of the public wishing to engage a barrister listed in this Directory should first instruct a solicitor to "brief" or instruct the barrister for the required court appearance. Alternatively, contact the barrister or Chamber clerk for further assistance. 2 All Court Solicitors listed in this website accept instructions to act Court Agents.
