[neaden]

"It's a bit tricky to see exactly how to fix this, since you don't really want to just give each side a court-appointed lawyer: you really should get to pick your own lawyer." I don't know the details of it, but in England while you can pick your solicitor (the person you meet with out of court, who does research, puts together briefs, etc), you do not get to choose your Barrister (the person who represents you in court and argues before the judge. While this has changed to allow for some selection in the past few decades I believe you still don't have full choice.

[hjb]

This page seems to suggest that's mostly because the solicitor will have barristers they prefer to work with: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/for-the-public/finding-...