A Bar Standards Board (BSB) survey of 2,000 adults found that one in four adults trust legal professionals. Some 17 per cent said they trust solicitors, compared with only 13 per cent who have faith in barristers.

Journalists (three per cent), bankers (two per cent) and estate agents and politicians (one per cent) fared the worst. A sizeable 57 per cent of those questioned do not trust any of these professions.

Ruth Deech, BSB Chair, said: “While legal professionals don’t fare too badly in this poll, their net trust rating of 24 per cent is at best underwhelming.”