PRACTICE

Rights of audience - court's discretion to grant to unqualified assistant - caution required where person making practice of assisting unrepresented litigantsNoueiri v Paragon Finance plc: CA (Lords Justice Brooke, Tuckey and Laws): 19 September 2001The Court of Appeal (Lords Justice Robert Walker and Tuckey) when dismissing on 4 July 2001 three applications by a mortgagor against a finance company expressed doubts as to whether Anthony Alexander, who had been permitted to address the court as the mortgagor's lay representative, was a proper person to act in such a capacity.The matter was adjourned for a separate hearing by a different division of the Court of Appeal, at the conclusion of which, for reasons to be given later, an interim order was made banning Mr Alexander and any company owned or controlled by him from taking any step whatever within the Royal Courts of Justice by way of acting or purporting to act on behalf of persons other than himself in legal proceedings except with permission of a judge of the High Court or Court of Appeal.Philip Engleman and Paul Spencer (assigned by the Bar Pro Bono Unit) for the Citizen's Advice Bureau, intervening; Jeremy Morgan (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) as amicus curiae.

Mr Alexander in person.Held, affirming the interim order, that the discretion under part II of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 to grant rights of audience and rights to conduct litigation should only be exercised in exceptional circumstances where the individual concerned made a practice of seeking to represent or assist otherwise unrepresented litigants; and that court staff should be vigilant to ensure that formal documents, such as an appellant's notice, were signed either by the litigant himself or someone, such as a solicitor, who had the legal right to conduct litigation on the litigant's behalf.

(WLR)