Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/478

 THE LONDON COURTS are reached and try them from the same seats, so that there is always a considerable professional audience. The public have little accommodation — usually a few benches back of the barristers and a gallery. A JURY TRIAL At a jury trial the solicitor, whose client is the plaintiff or defendant, sits on the front bench in the solicitor's well. He has prepared the case and knows its ins and outs, as well as the personal peculiarities of the parties and witnesses who will be called. But he is unable to take any part in the trial and can only communicate an occa sional suggestion to the bewigged barristers he has retained, by craning his head back ward to the leader behind him. This leader is a newcomer into the case. He is a K. C. (King's Counsel) who was retained by the solicitor upon payment of a guinea fol lowed by a large " agreed fee." He leaves the "opening of the pleadings" to the junior immediately behind him again. This junior has handed over the preparation to his "devil" who is seated beside him. Thus the four men engaged on a side, in stead of being grouped around counsel table,' as they are in America, are seated, one in front of the other, at different levels, rendering impossible a general consulta tion upon some unexpected situation sud denly arising. Two men engaged in the case who know much about it have no voice in it, for the devil is necessarily as mum as the solicitor, nor does his name even appear in the report of the trial. How this comes about requires some acquain tance with the definitions of the fields of activity of the barristers and solicitors en gaged in the cause. BARRISTERS AND SOLICITORS The line which separates solicitors from the Bar — the barristers — is difficult for an American to fully appreciate, for in his

445

country it does not exist. The solicitor or attorney is the family or corporation man of law business. To him the party contemplating litigation must first go. The solicitor guides his conduct by advice in the preliminary stages, or, occasionally, retains a barrister for an opinion upon a concrete question of law. The solicitor conducts all the negotiations or threats which usually precede a lawsuit. If compromise is im possible he brings suit and retains a junior barrister; the amount 'of the fee being stated on the back of the brief and the brief con sisting of a written narrative of the contro versy, with copies of all papers and corre spondence — in short the facts of the case prepared. It is engrossed or typewritten on large sized paper with very broad mar gins for notes and is folded once only and lengthwise so as to make a packet fifteen by four inches. The junior barrister usually has a " devil," and generally the same one, if he is making over £1000 a year. The devil is also a bar rister, a young one in wig and gown, who serves without compensation and without fame — for his name does not appear — often for from five to seven years. He studies the case, sees the witnesses, looks up the law, and generally masters all the details, so as to supply the junior with ammunition. Before the trial the junior has one or more "conferences" (all paid for at so many guineas) with the solicitor, occasionally even sees the party he is to represent, and, more rarely, an important witness or two. The devil sometimes is present, although his existence is in general decorously con cealed from the solicitor. If the solicitor, or the litigating party, grows nervous, or hears of the other side's having taken in more distinguished counsel, the solicitor retains a K. C. as leader. Then a "consultation" ensues at the leaders' chambers between leader, junior, solicitor, and, sometimes, devil. At the trial the junior merely "opens the pleadings" by stating, in the fewest possi