Legal Professionals in English Law: Roles and Responsibilities

This report provides an introduction to the English legal system, detailing its various sources of law, categorized into primary and secondary sources. Primary sources, including legislation and case law, are examined, highlighting their importance in shaping legal frameworks. Secondary sources, such as legal encyclopedias, parliamentary publications, law journals, and textbooks, are also discussed for their role in interpreting and understanding the law. Furthermore, the report explores the roles of key legal professionals within the English legal system, including judges, solicitors, barristers, and legal executives. It differentiates their responsibilities, emphasizing the functions of solicitors in providing legal services and advising clients, the advocacy role of barristers, and the judicial duties of judges in interpreting and upholding the law. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the legal system, supported by the resources available on Desklib for students, including past papers and solved assignments.

INTRODUCTION
TO
LAW

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1...................................................................................................................................3
Describe the role of Judges, Solicitors, Barristers and legal executives in the English legal
system..........................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
In today's world, it is necessary to have a proper and appropriate understanding of law
and its related terms. There are different and varied branches of law and its subtypes. It can be
categorised as Contract law, business law, environmental law etc. In this present report it has
been demonstrated about the role of law along with identification and reflection of different
sources of law with their role in English legal system (Akers, 2013). Along with this, a basic
understanding about legal issues and research has also been done in this assignment. Role of
judges, solicitors has been discussed to effect the judicial system.
QUESTION 1
Describe the role of Judges, Solicitors, Barristers and legal executives in the English legal system
Law is a judicial system in which rules and regulations are created and framed and
enforced with social and governmental establishments which help in regulating the behaviour.
Law has been prepared under various hierarchical steps which includes law at state level,
collective level etc. Even an individual can also give effect to the law by entering into contract
with different parties (Cassese and et. al., 2013). So, it must be noted that law is considered to be
the important part in the society. Every aspect of environment is governed by law. Now law
plays an important role in the society as it protects the people from any harm of any other type of
injuries. Law also make sure that arguments and disputes are settled and motivate people to
perform tasks which are for common good and beneficial for common people. It can also be said
that it is useful for societies in world and also assure the citizens a secure and safe life. There are
different levels in which law operates. It can be from municipal level to state level which reaches
at national level.

Illustration 1: role of law
§
There are many sources of law which means origin of law. In other words, it has been
assessed that it binds the activities of human in context of law. There are mainly two sources of
law which can be categorised as Primary and Secondary. These sources are governed under
common law systems. It must be noted that these sources are helpful in implementing and
applying the law in different cases and situations.
Primary source can be defined as a theme of law arisen from governmental authority and
entity, which can include court legislature, executive agency a president or a governor. These
sources are considered as reliable and trustable as they are primary source of law (Doe, 2011).
Primary sources of law can be understood in many ways which includes Case laws made by
court and legislations enacted by court and parliament etc. There are many examples of primary
sources of data. It includes court decisions and case laws, statutes, federal register, legislation
etc. It mainly covers Legislation and case laws.
Legislations: This term is framed and incorporated for the regulation of the behaviour in
the society and also reflects and show the way in which society behaves. Legislations are framed
with a view point of giving an effect to different rules and regulations of different acts which are
been prepared in the context of different situations. In UK, there is not a single and written
constitution (Fernhout and van Rhee, 2014). It has been referred as written in a partly manner
and complete unmodified. It consists of various laws and legislations which are instituted or
passed in Parliament. These law come into force in the form of legislations which are applicable
in whole UK. As, parliament is the highest authority in the UK and only it has a power to control

over all the acts and rules prepared in this context. Legislations can be amended by addition,
deletion of altering of acts which it comprises of.
There are different types of legislations in UK which are as follows:
Draft Legislations: These are those types of legislations which is consist of proposals
and suggestions for new laws and changes or amendments in existing acts or legislations
(Goldberg, 2012). There are many bills which are presented before Parliament each year from
which few bills get approval and become a new law . It can only be done by Parliament of UK.
Primary Legislation: It includes those statutes and acts enacted by Parliament of UK,
which are under its control. Statutes are the terms in which general intention is carried out in a
legal language. It varies according to the particular field.
Delegated Legislation: It is another type of legislation which includes the statutory
techniques and instruments created by people. These people acts under an authority of parliament
conferred by Acts to fill in the details.
Case laws: It is the term in which the decisions of the court are laid down. They are
known as Law reports. It is the fundamental and primary source of law (Hage, 2014). As,
development and enhancement of law depends upon the effective and accurate law reports which
comprises of facts , issues and held decisions in the context of different cases. Also it is consist
of legal principals on which the judgement has been made.
Also, a specific feature of English law is the Doctrine of Judicial Precedents in which the
decisions of the court are the binding source of law for decisions that will be taken in future. A
judge is obliged by the superior court decisions but not the inferior court's decisions. A law
reports are those report which is consist of decisions held in different cases along with the whole
description.
On the other hand, secondary law sources are those which is consist of those materials
that are used to discuss ,explicate, interpret and examine what the law is and about the way it
should be (Heringa and Kiiver, 2012). In addition to this, there are different examples in
secondary law of sources as well which consist of following:
Legal Encyclopedias: It is one of the source In the heading of secondary source of law. It
means that these are the excellent base for starting the research as it renders various key points ,
cases and their decisions. Through this kind of source people can gain legal information about
every case and also its whole description.

Parliamentary and Non parliamentary Publications: These are the sources which let us
to gain and obtain the reason and background as why this particular piece of legislation has
come into force or not. It includes command papers, Debates of parliament and house of Lords
papers.
Law Journals: It is the term of which the range is very extensive. These can be general
and covered under a particular area (Heringa, 2014). They contain the combination of different
articles and also the case summary which help people to understand about various aspects of law.
Text Books: This is an another form of beginning and looking for researching a particular
topic. It means that these are written for the students for their understanding so that they can have
proper and enough knowledge about law and its aspects.
The sources of law which are primary and secondary sources are very important in the
English legal system as they lay down the basis of understanding the law from different aspects.
Also, these are consist of various laws and regulations which are consist f the foundation of legal
system (Kanter, 2011). With the help of these sources aspects and particulars of law and different
case laws can also be understood.
In addition to this to make the English legal system more effective and judicial there are
many people who contribute their role in developing legal system. These people can be
characterised as Judges, Solicitors and Barristers along with legal executives. These people
sound similar but they are quite different from each other.
Solicitors are those persons who work in the Magistrates, courts and country courts. It is
the legal practitioner who performs their functions in the matter of some jurisdictions. A solicitor
must be well- competent with legal qualifications which can vary from one jurisdiction to
another. It has been governed under Solicitors Act 1974. these are the legal persons which
performs their acts in court as they are legally qualified. With the passage of time and
practice ,they are also allotted with a certificate also.
The role of Solicitors in the context of English legal system are :
The main role of a solicitor is to render a huge range of legal services to its customers
like companies , business organizations etc. they help their clients by solving their problems and
issues and conflicts also (Mansell, 2015). They assign their work to barrister under an authority.
In addition to this, solicitors are entitled to advise people for their legal issues. According to the
English law system it can be further noticed that there are solicitors work in the field of

conveyancing, probate and litigation of the various cases and considerations. A solicitor has been
entitled to owe a duty to his client to take care of his interests and concerns and also if he become
negligent then the client may asks for the damages and compensation under the Tort law. Also a
Soli9citor is liable to enable the proceedings with discipline so that he can not be claimed as
guilty under Solicitors Disciplinary tribunal. Moreover, it can also be noted that a solicitor has a
duty before the court also (Rybiak, Fouvry and Bonnet, 2010). He can also be liable for contempt
of court.
On the contrary to this, barristers are those persons who receives instructions from the
solicitor. They also provide a legal suggestion to his clients as solicitors do but they are engaged
on the behalf of solicitors. Barristers can sometimes, be considered as an associates to solicitors.
They are the persons who contact with the clients and firstly look over the case then it is
rendered to solicitors.
The Role of a barrister in the context of a English legal system:
They have a right to be called as advocate as it is the most frequent work done by the
Barristers. They are specialised in the advocacy. Also, there role is also confined to the prosecute
in different cases and also, they prepare and frame pleadings in the respect of their claimants.
They are also some tasks to do related to paperwork in the court and magistrates. They are also
allotted a responsibilities to render their advise on the legal matters which can also be termed as
Taking counsel opinion (Sagawa, 2012). Also, they are allowed to share the chambers which
serves other chambers. In addition to this,it is assessed that there are many other functions which
are assigned to the barristers it mainly includes the duties to the court and clients. also, the duties
are related and based on the professional etiquettes which are not under the control of courts as
they can not be fired and restricted from the court. Further more, the role and duties of can be
changed from time to time.
Moreover, another legal person are judges. They have a variety of roles to play in the
context of English Legal system. In this aspect it has been said that they are responsible to
interpret the laws and legislations , assessment of the cases decided etc. Further more, they are
judgement makers in aspect of judicature procedure. Mainly the role of judge extends up to the
interpretation and upholding of law and legislations (Zerilli, 2010). In addition to this, it is the
duty of the judges to keep a eye check on mishandling of authority by the way of judicial review.
A judge is entitled with the role to make decision in respect of a case as he is the “Trier of Fact”.

He performs his duties by studying and applying all laws and rules in aspect of respective case.
Also, it has been said that judges are responsible to pass sentence and implement various
penalties in aspect of crime (Schubert, 2011). In the respect of civil cases , judges are required to
examine whether the case is valid or legal or not. The other important role that has been assigned
to Judges is to maintain the code of ethics in the court room. He has to identify and evaluate all
the issues and facts and then pass the results.
Difference between Solicitors and Barristers: Main difference between solicitor and
barrister is to defence their client and mainly perform the legal work outside the court. Solicitors
can work for different and big organisations. Whereas Barristers work in court at high level and
their important role is to act as advocates in legal hearings. They stand in court and plead the
case on behalf of their clients in front of a judge. Solicitors undertake discussion, advice their
clients and drafts legal documents where the barrister advocates legal hearings.
Legal executives are those persons who are employed by solicitors which specialises in a
particular field of law (Walston-Dunham, 2011). They are recognised among the most important
judicial persons with solicitors and barristers in English legal system. These are governed under
Legal Services Act, 2007. In reference to this, a legal executive is the person, which have same
rights as solicitors have. They perform their tasks in the context of private practice, industry and
local government.
The role of judge in judicial system: Judge play different roles. They measure presented
evidence, control hearings and trials uncover the courtrooms and explain law. Judges are fair
decision creators in the following of justice. Judge provide an unbiased and independent
measures of the facts and analyse how to apply law on these facts. Without setting a jury judge
heard all civil and criminal cases. Judge decide whether the evidence is believable. He applies
the laws to facts, to determine civil claim which has been develop on equal of quality.
Role of judge in a crown court: In these, court criminal cases are heard by the judge and
jury. In criminal cases judge manage trial and makes decisions with the help of law. Jury take
decision and consider whether criminal is innocent or guilty. When the jury fails to find out
decision then judge issues their sentences. At the time of trail judge, make sure about jury that
they aware about their legal roles and what should be and shouldn't do so they can make sure
court case stays within the law.

The role of Judge in family case: These cases heard in High court, magistrates court and
country court. Hearing of these case depend on the type and difficulty of cases. There are no jury
to take decision. Family court judge take special training in how to deal with these types of cases
and issues. Judge assess different evidence and listen to different arguments before making
judgement.
Appeal court: Main role of appeal court judge is to hear appeals from the High court and
Circuit court. If any issues rises regarding the decision of high court, then appeal court hear case
and make decision.
Types of judge:
District court judge: These judges control over minor criminal matters. Different judges
in special aspect of District Court system which include jury trials, family, civil, youth and ACC
appeals.
Supreme court judge: Judge of Supreme court has been appointed qualified person under
the section 2 of the Legal Professional Act.
Superior court judge: Judge of superior court hear civil, family criminal and equity law
cases. Judge oversees the administrative prospect of the court to constituent and presiding at
different level of formal functions.
Hierarchy of the court – The hierarchy of court system is deferring from country to
country. The hierarchy of legal system of UK court is as follows.

(Source: Hierarchy of court)
Role of Criminal judge: Criminal judge manage all function. They manage hear motions,
select jury, manage cases, set schedules. These judges are taking decision on the basis of proper
evidence which will prove that defendant is criminal or not.
Role of civil judge: Civil judge hear cases, find facts, applying related laws. In these the
decision is taken on the basis of evidence which has been provided by plaintiff.
CONCLUSION
From this above report it has been concluded that law is a term which is consist of
various legal and judicial systems which act as a foundation to operate all legal activities. Also,
there are two types of sources of law which can be characterised as Primary and secondary
source of data. Also, the various sources of data have their importance in the legal system of UK.
Also, in this report, it has been presented that there are important role of judges , solicitors and
barristers. They are used as similar way but they are quite different from each other. It has also
been said that there are different roles and functions that are assigned to them in context of legal
and judicial system.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
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disability legal studies.
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Zerilli, F.M., 2010. The rule of soft law: An introduction. Focaal.2010(56). pp.3-18.