An informant is the person who has charged you. Normally it is the police officer who is handling your matter. Their name is normally on your charge sheets.

A diversion is a process, for minor matters, where your matter is taken out of the Court process. It is dealt with by you agreeing to certain conditions and no conviction is noted against you.

An ex parte hearing is listed if you have not turned up or put in an appearance on a relatively minor matter on which you were on summons to attend. It is set down for an ex parte hearing so that the Informant/ Police officer can attend Court and tell the Magistrate what happened. The Magistrate then imposes a penalty in your absence.

It is a process you should attend as the penalty may be far less if your version of events is told or you may want to plead not guilty.

You can be either just a Barrister or both a Barrister and Solicitor. All solicitors are also Barristers.

If you are just a Barrister you can not take instructions directly on matters in the County or Supreme Court. The Barrister has to be instructed by and get a “brief” from the solicitor.

There used to be a greater distinction when Barristers did most of the appearance work at Courts. That is no longer the case. A solicitor will often arrange for a barrister to act for their client when that Barrister is a specialist in particular types of crime.

Some matters that are contested such as drink driving cases are ones where a specialist Barrister would be most helpful.

"The link to barristers can be found on the contact us page. If we brief someone on your behalf we will inform you of the list they are on and you will be able to look at the information they have posted."

Lawyers is a term that covers both Barristers and Solicitors