When a case goes to Crown Court a barrister will always deal with the case (unless your solicitor has higher rights and can deal with CC cases). So if you stayed with your solicitor will instruct a barrister to represent you (think of a doctor referring a case to a consultant) and in that instance you will not have direct contact with the barrister - it will be through your solicitor. You may have meetings with your barrister but normally your solicitor will be present also. The majority will be received by your solicitor who will then forward it to the barrister to consider and prepare the case. A solicitor in CC matters basically does what the barrister says - in that if anything needs to be communicated to the CPS or Court the barrister may tell the solicitor what needs to be done and the solicitor will do it. If you pay a direct access barrister - you will need to find out if that will just be for representing you at Court and ultimately at Trial if you have pleaded NG - if not then you will have to deal with the correspondence and evidence that will be received from CPS and/or Court.