The Legal Profession

1. The court system is dependent upon the legal profession to make it work. Although individuals can institute cases and defend them normally lawyers do this job for them. The legal profession is the normal source of judicial personnel for any court system.

2. England is almost unique in having two different kinds of lawyers, with separate jobs in the legal system. The two kinds of lawyers are solicitors and barristers. This division of the 1egal profession is due mainly to historical causes. Each branch has its own characteristic functions and a separate governing body.

3. The division has a number of significant impacts upon t he judicial system. It is the main reason for the separation between civil and criminal courts. It also has a significant impact upon judicial appointments.

4. The traditional picture of the English lawyer is that the solicitor is the general practitioner, confined mainly to the office. The solicitor is the legal adviser of the public. Members of the public are able to call at a solicitor’s office and seek his advice in a personal interview. The barrister is the specialist adviser much of whose time is taken up with court-room appearance. A barrister can only be consulted indirectly through a solicitor. Today however the lines of demarcation are blurred.

5. There is approximately one solicitor to every 1300 of the population, with considerable regional and local variations. There is a heavy concentration in commercial centres. The ratio for barristers is about one per every 10,000. Taking the legal profession as a whole (38,500), there is one practicing lawyer per 1200 people. This compares with about one lawyer per 600 in the USA. But a lot of work in English solicitors’ offices is undertaken by managing clerks, now called «legal executives», who are a third type of lawyers. (Legal executives now have their own professional and examining body — «the Institute of Legal Executives»).

Примечания к тексту:

solicitor – солиситор, стряпчий (юрист, консультирующий клиентов, орга­низации и фирмы; подготавливает дела для барристеров)

barrister – барристер (адвокат, имеющий право выступать в высших судах)

«legal executives» – законные исполнители (персонал, нанимаемый солиси­торами, клерки)

ВАРИАНТ № 4