As you may have seen all over the legal press today, the Court of Appeal has overturned the Mazur ruling from September last year!
Gone is the distinction between supporting or assisting an authorised solicitor in conducting litigation and doing so under supervision (a distinction which caused much soul-searching and head-scratching with the latter being forbidden since September), with the Court of Appeal confirming that “it is not unlawful for an unauthorised person to act for and on behalf of an authorised individual so as to conduct litigation under their supervision, provided the authorised individual puts in place appropriate arrangements for the supervision of and delegation to the unauthorised person.”
So, what now? Whilst this is a huge relief for legal executives (without practising rights), paralegals and trainee solicitors, it is vital to note the supervision point. We will provide more detailed guidance and support once we have fully reviewed the judgment and the expected updated guidance from the SRA and The Law Society, but for now you need to:
- Ensure you have an authorised individual with overall conduct of each litigation matter and staff understand who has responsibility and oversight of each task;
- Think carefully about your delegation and supervision arrangements. Ensure you have a clear written policy and process for documenting the supervision provided;
- Think about the level of supervision required – is this proportionate to the case and level of seniority of the non-authorised staff member?
- Do you have sufficient authorised people to supervise the non-authorised staff adequately and effectively?
- Document the supervision provided in each matter. You still need to be able to evidence effective management of your non-authorised staff.
- Beware of thinking it’s just back to pre-September ‘business as usual’ if your supervision systems left a little to be desired back then!
The full Court of Appeal judgment can be found here.