LSB approval opens up higher rights of audience to CILEX advocates

Experienced CILEX advocates will be able to apply for higher rights of audience (HRA) in civil and criminal work after the Legal Services Board (LSB) approved CILEx Regulation Ltd’s (CRL) application to change its rules.

Qualified CILEX practitioners can currently obtain litigation and advocacy rights for the lower courts. The changes mean they will now be able to apply for HRA once they have had these for a year.

The LSB is required to judge such applications on the basis of whether there are grounds for refusing them. The regulator put on the record its “disappointment at the poor quality of the application submitted by CRL in this matter” and listed several areas where CRL needed to do more work in implementing the scheme. Ultimately, however, the LSB found no reason to refuse it.

The LSB said: “We consider that, based on CRL’s explanation of the prior training and experience required before becoming eligible to undertake the HRA assessment, and the quality assurance measures that are built into the assessment itself (including, but not limited to, the requirement to submit a portfolio of three cases in which advocacy is undertaken), CRL’s proposed training pathway provides a sufficient basis for training CRL members to be awarded HRA.

“In particular, we note that the requirements exceed those required for solicitor-advocates – who are not required to demonstrate their advocacy skills by way of a portfolio.”

The training will take five days, consisting of two days of written training, two days of practical training and one assessment day. CRL said that, taken as a whole from starting the CILEX qualification, this pathway equated to a minimum of six years of qualifications, training and experience prior to gaining HRA.

CRL is undertaking further work which will need to be completed before it can start accepting applications, including further liaison with the LSB, and are working towards a launch date of September 2024.