Legal executives living in limbo to be allowed to conduct litigation say they are waiting for months for their practising rights to be granted. CILEx Regulation said this week that applications to be authorised to litigate are taking an average of nine weeks to be completed.
Individuals who have gone through the process say their wait has been much longer. They also report finding it difficult to speak to anyone for an update on their applications.
The issue is important because followiing the High Court’s ruling in Mazur hundreds of legal executives are unable to litigate and their work is heavily restricted. Many have had to step away from cases and clients they have had for many years in complex matters, and are having to defer to supervisors who might be newly-qualified solicitors.
The judge in Mazur ruled in September that only authorised individuals could conduct litigation and that any firms allowing unauthorised people to do so – even under supervision – are acting unlawfully.
The entry points currently offered to legal executives are the portfolio route (submitting evidence of competence and experience in litigation), assessment only and a training and assessment route.
Sharon Allison, a partner with East Anglia firm Ashtons Legal, has now been granted her practising rights after applying last year, but the process took 14 weeks and involved several emails to CRL and the generic email address provided. Allison, a qualified legal executive for 20 years, was granted practising rights only after she made a formal complaint to oversight regulator the Legal Services Board.
Allison said she is aware of people waiting up to four months with no decision on their application, with most unable to contract CRL to get any updates. ‘For all of the additional resource they say they have, the end user – being the chartered legal executive – is not seeing much benefit from it,’ she said. ‘I am out the other side but it doesn’t bring me any sense of joy or achievement knowing hundreds of other CLE’s are going through relentless stress and frustration with at best, limited, and at worst, no way of actually communicating with CRL.’
Another legal executive, who did not want to be named, submitted an application on 21 October and sent in her portfolios of work to be assessed. But since paying CILEx Regulation's fee on 9 December she has heard nothing.
The portfolio route comes with an application fee of £450 and around £40 for a DBS check. The assessment-only route costs £650 with the £40 DBS check. Training and assessment costs around £2,350.
CILEx Regulation published its January update this week, revealing that 67 people have been approved as litigators since the start of November. The organisation has received 405 application under the portfolio route, of which 37 have been approved.
When the regulator posted this on LinkedIn, it prompted dozens of comments from practitioners who questioned whether the timescales being claimed were accurate.
A CILEx Regulation spokesperson said it recognises the ongoing uncertainty facing many chartered legal executives and is working hard to assess and approve as many portfolio applications as quickly and efficiently as possible. It introduced a new applications process on November 1 and hired 20 external assessors to increase capacity.
She added: ‘There are applications that have taken longer than nine weeks and some that have gone through much quicker. This often depends on the quality of the application and whether all steps are completed. For example, a significant proportion of applications have required additional information to pass pre-screening and, once with an external assessor, be approved. We are working closely with our external assessors to ensure they have everything they need to assess applications quickly and efficiently.’
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