There has been a huge surge in the number of solicitors gaining higher rights of audience, as practitioners are forced to seek an alternative source of income to compensate for diminishing legal aid rates, lawyers told the Gazette this week.


Over the past five years, the total number of solicitors with higher rights has risen from 1,775 to 4,504.



The number of those with rights of audience solely in the higher criminal courts has gone up by more than 160% from 968 in 2003 to 2,545 now.



Roy Morgan, chairman of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group and a higher rights trainer and assessor, said: 'Many criminal legal aid practitioners see this as the future and the only way to stay in the criminal law.



'With the single litigator fee coming in, most practitioners are seeing it as their saving grace in terms of fees and keeping work in-house rather than farming it out to the bar.'



Andrew Keogh, higher rights solicitor and a partner at national firm Tuckers, said: 'It's a very obvious trend being spotted in the court rooms.'



Higher court advocacy is still regarded by many as the territory of the bar, but since solicitors became eligible to practice in the higher courts in 1994, more are now starting to embrace it, Keogh said.



'It's an inevitable consequence of revenues being squeezed in the lower courts and at the police station,' he added. 'It can provide a significant revenue stream if you do the right cases in the right quantity, but it's hard to combine with a general criminal practice, due to listings.'



Tim Lawson-Cruttenden, chairman of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates, said: 'This has gathered momentum over the last few years. It's a pleasing development and a trend that will continue.'



Catherine Baksi