How many types of barrister are there?

Question

i mean i know there are criminal barristers, but what else?

Answer 1

There's no hard distinction between "types" of barristers. It's all down to what they cases they happen to receive, and what area they choose to specialise in. There are barristers who are really specialised (like, only doing high profile road traffic), and there are barristers who do a very wide variety of work.

There are only a few strongly differentiated areas - some barristers specialise in Costs - to be called upon at the end of a trial to argue on costs issues.

It's also dependent on the chambers you're in. Some are specialist ( Intellectual Property chambers tend to do nothing else), some are general (covering criminal matters, and a variety of civil matters, such as family or employment).

Areas of work change all the time, but here are a few of the ones you'll see a lot on chambers websites:

Criminal

Family

Employment

Judicial Review

Commercial

Environment

Intellectual Property

Human Rights

Prison Law

Personal Injury

Medical Negligence

Professional Negligence

Land & Property

Costs