[2] Further, a person appearing in court without legal representation has a right of audience but a person who is not a lawyer that assists a party to a legal matter in court does not have a right of audience.
Solicitors' clerks have also traditionally been allowed to be heard in proceedings in chambers in the High Court, such as summonses for directions (now known as case management hearings), and subsequent changes have preserved these rights.
The 2007 Act gave powers to grant rights of audience to: Post-independence the Republic of Ireland continued to restrict the right of audience (Irish: ceart éisteachta) in circuit court level and above to barristers.
[7] Despite this many solicitors often encountered hostility from judges when exercising their right of audience for many years after the change in the law[citation needed], particularly due to the fact that solicitors did not wear wigs or gowns and thus, in the judges' view (all of whom were, at that time, ex-barristers) were not 'dressed for court'.
[8] Following the removal of the requirement of barristers (and subsequently judges) to wear wigs this distinction has further dissipated.