I went to go look at Albert Harebrayne's wiki page and it pointed out to me something that I'd somehow COMPLETELY overlooked—the fact that Barok van Zieks is a noble and that it's customary for people to refer to him as "Lord", but Albert doesn't, and he's from a different social class—presumably under the nobility. they're close enough friends that despite that they address each other by first name.
this just makes Evie Vigil's iconic line all the more funnier to me. "One might wonder about a possible relationship between the defendant and the coroner woman. Or perhaps between the defendant and that handsome prosecutor just there." this lady, this gentlewoman rocked up to court with her listening ears on and watched some random commoner scientist address the prosecutor of his trial, a member of the nobility, by his first name, and then saw the prosecutor not only accept the address, but return it in kind, and she said "it seems like they know each other"