Barrister, Or Barrastor - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition barrister-or-barrastor

Definition :

Barrister, or Barrastor, a counsellor or advocate learned in the law, admitted to plead at the bar, and there to take upon himself the protection and defence of clients. He is termed jurisconsultus and licentiatus in jure. As to the mode and qualification for obtaining the degree of a barrister, see INNS OF COURT; and consult Marchant on Barristers; Warren's Law Studies; Forsyth's Hortenisus; and Chitty on Contracts; also Mew's Digest, tit. 'Barrister.'

It shall mean a barrister of England or Ireland, or a member of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland. [General Clauses Act, 1897 (10 of 1897), S. 3 (4)]

Fees.--A barrister can maintain no action for his fees, which are given not as a salary or hire, but as a mere honorarium or gratuity, and even an express promise by a client to pay money to counsel for his advocacy is not binding, see Re Le Brasseur & Oakley, (1896) 2 Ch 487; Kennedy v. Broun, (1863) 13 CBN S 677, where the whole law on the subject of counsel's fees is elaborately discussed. He cannot even recover fees from the solicitor to whom the lay client has paid them, Wells v. Wells, (1914) 157. Moreover, the payment of a fee does not depend upon the event of a cause; and for the purpose of promoting the honour and integrity of the Bar, it is expected that all their fees should be paid when their briefs are delivered, Morris v. Hunt, (1819) 1 Chitty R 551. On the other hand, he is not liable to an action for negligence or unskilfulness; or for any words spoken in court, however malicious or irrelevant (Odgers on Libel and Slander, 6th Edn., 196). For a great number of years it had not been considered requisite that the fee notes signed by counsel to indicate the payment of the fees should be stamped as 'receipts'; but such notes have now been held to be receipts within the meaning of the (English) Stamp Act, 1891 [Council of the Bar v. Inland Revenue Commissioners, 1907 (1) KB 462].

Intervention of Solicitor.--It is a rule of etiquette, but not a rule of law, that a barrister shall not take instructions except through the intervention of a solicitor. See Doe v. Hale, (1850) 15 QB 171, where it was said that the rule of etiquette was beneficial, and ought to be maintained; and the correspondence between the Attorney-General and Mr. Yerburgh, M.P. (Solicitors' Journal, July 7, 1888), where, however, an important distinction is drawn between contentious and non-contentious business; Annual Practice; Annual Statement of the Bar Council for (1904-5) 10. By rule 20 of the Resolutions of the Bar Committee (see Annual Practice), counsel who has drawn pleadings or advised or accepted a brief during the progress of an action is entitled to a brief at the trial. For the obligation resting on solicitors with regard to this rule, see Re Harrison, (1908) 1 Ch 282.

Barristers have exclusive audience in the Supreme Court, but not in Bankruptcy business or before the Railway and Canal Commission, where, as in the County Courts, they are heard along with solicitors.

For a list of the posts for which barristers are qualified, with the length of standing required, see Chit. Stat. Tit. 'Barrister'; Marchant on Barristers.