Litigation: Plan to sever link with advocacy
CILEx Regulation (CRL) has launched plans for chartered legal executives to obtain standalone rights to conduct litigation without having to seek rights of audience at the same time.
CRL currently only grants litigation rights in civil, family and criminal litigation to those who are also seeking advocacy rights.
The regulator said both CILEX and CRL had “identified support for the initiative from a number of existing members of our regulated community and stakeholders”.
The purpose of a recently published consultation was to determine whether it should apply to the Legal Services Board for this and how it should assess applications.
Under the current system, existing chartered legal executives have flexibility in how they apply for litigation and advocacy rights, having qualified under so-called legacy education standards.
One option is to complete a training and assessment practice rights programme conducted by the University of Law (ULaw) on behalf of CRL.
Alternatively, they submit a certificate of eligibility application form – detailing their relevant experience, including chargeable hours, from the previous two years – along with a portfolio of a minimum of three cases of litigation and three cases of advocacy they have participated in.
Chartered legal executives qualifying under the ‘new’ education standards – that is, those who have taken the CILEX Professional Qualification – do not have the ULaw option, and also must include five litigation cases in their portfolio.
They have to submit a portfolio of evidence against six key competencies linked to civil, family or criminal work as well.
All applicants, whichever route they have taken, must finally pass an advocacy skills qualification at a CRL-approved training provider.
CRL said it is planning to maintain this approach (less the advocacy cases) for the standalone rights.
It will also maintain the different authorised titles, depending on how they qualified: existing chartered legal executives who apply under the legacy standards would be known as a CILEX litigator (civil litigation), (criminal litigation) or (family litigation), whereas new members would obtain the authorised titles of ‘chartered legal executive litigator’.
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