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Protocol for the instruction of Counsel in the Magistrates’ Court

Purpose: To advise barristers, chambers and instructing solicitors on recommended minimum rates for advocacy work in the Magistrates’ Court in the Greater London area
Scope of application: All practising criminal barristers who undertake Magistrates’ Court work, and clerks and barrister members of chambers who agree fees for this work with solicitor firms
Issued by: The Bar Council, Criminal Bar Association and London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association
First reviewed: 01/01/2002
Last reviewed: 02/05/2019
Status and effect: Please see the notice at end of this document. This is not "guidance" for the purposes of the BSB Handbook I6.4.

The document below is the Protocol. The Protocol was published with a covering letter from the Chair of the Bar and the Chair of the Young Barrister’s Committee that alerts barristers and chambers to their code of conduct obligations. Click here for the covering letter.


Download: Protocol for the instruction of Counsel:

Download ( PDF )


Important Notice

This document has been prepared by the Bar Council to assist barristers on matters of professional conduct and ethics. It is not “guidance” for the purposes of the BSB Handbook I6.4, and neither the BSB nor a disciplinary tribunal nor the Legal Ombudsman is bound by any views or advice expressed in it. It does not comprise – and cannot be relied on as giving – legal advice. It has been prepared in good faith, but neither the Bar Council nor any of the individuals responsible for or involved in its preparation accept any responsibility or liability for anything done in reliance on it. For fuller information as to the status and effect of this document, please see here.

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