Barristers: Almost everyone has heard of them
Public confidence in barristers is high, but lower among those from minority backgrounds, especially when it comes to perceptions of whether they treat everyone fairly, new research has found.
Confidence was lower than average among those from lower C2DE social grades.
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) commissioned what is likely to become an annual survey to improve its evidence base around public awareness of and confidence in barristers.
Ipsos Mori surveyed 2,047 adults and found police officer and solicitor were the types of legal professionals that most respondents have heard of (99% and 98% respectively), followed by barrister and judge (both 97%), followed by legal executive (87%) and paralegal (85%), with McKenzie Friend trailing behind at 24%.
The proportion who knew something about these roles was very high for the first four (85% for barristers), but only 56% for legal executives and paralegals and 14% for McKenzie Friends.
While 85% thought barristers were regulated, half of respondents had not heard of the BSB and only 18% said they knew something about it. Awareness of whether the BSB was independent of the Bar Council was even lower, with 71% not knowing.
Confidence in four aspects of the barrister’s role were tested: acting in clients’ interests, providing a competent standard of service, acting with integrity, and treating everyone fairly and without discrimination.
Most people expressed confidence in these, although more with the first two (both 78%) than with the latter two (75% and 70% respectively).
A paper before last week’s meeting of the BSB board said: “This suggests the general public may have slightly higher confidence around barristers’ provision of services to clients than they do about aspects that relate to their ethical responsibilities.”
Confidence was higher than average among those who had used a barrister personally, had higher incomes, were from the ABC1 social grades, and who knew someone who worked in the legal sector (most people, 76%, were not in that group).
By contrast, confidence was lower than average among those from the C2DE social grades and those from what the report called a minoritised ethnic background.
Confidence levels among minority respondents were lower across all four, with only 62% confident that barristers treated everyone fairly without discrimination, while 23% disagreed.
Only 195 of the sample had used a barrister personally. Of these, 78% were fairly/very satisfied with the service, and 76% with the outcome. Those who were represented at court were more likely to be satisfied than those who used a barrister for other legal advice.
Communications director Wilf White told the board meeting: “These findings clearly suggest that we have a job to do in raising public awareness and understanding of the regulation of the Bar and of the BSB in particular, and in reassuring the public that we are indeed independent of the profession.
“But it is encouraging to see that there is already some understanding of our role and that only a small minority think that our role should only be to set rules and standards.”
In separate news, Mr White is one of the senior members of BSB staff leaving the regulator as a result of a restructuring that comes into effect today as part of its wider reform programme to improve its performance, which has been under severe scrutiny from the Legal Services Board.
It will now have six core functions: strategy, policy and insight; regulatory standards; regulatory enforcement; legal and information management; business planning, programmes and engagement; and people and culture.
A structural plan can be found on the BSB’s website.
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