What rights of audience do legal executives have?

Jul 15, 2022

Written By Jack Medforth

Legal Executives are a type of lawyer less talked about than barristers and solicitors and therefore their exact role is less widely known. This article will cover what a legal executive is before diving into what rights of audience they have.

What are legal executives?

Legal Executives (technically known as Chartered Legal Executives) are a type of lawyer whose role is comparable to a solicitor but often specialised in a single area of law. They have a different route to qualification than a solicitor because of this, with their studies reflecting the more narrowed, in-depth approach later reflected in their practice.

There are also what is known as reserved legal activities, which a solicitor may perform but a legal executive cannot.

Rights of audience after qualifying

In comparison to barristers and solicitors who qualify as an ‘authorised persons’ under the Legal Services Act 2007, legal executives do not have the same rights of audience.

On qualification a legal executive will only have rights of audience in some unopposed applications in County Court, under the supervision of an ‘authorised person’. They are also allowed to appear in the Crown Court and the Magistrates Court under certain conditions. This is opposed to solicitors who, on qualification, have automatic rights of audience in hearings in the Magistrates Court, County Court and some Crown Courts.

Qualifying for further rights of audience

A legal executive can qualify to have further rights of audience by taking a further qualification, similar to the Higher Rights of Audience exams that a solicitor may take. This further qualification can allow them to represent clients at County Courts and Magistrates Courts.

However, although a legal executive can choose to qualify further and extend their rights of audience, they can never obtain the higher rights of audience that solicitors and barristers may attain. In practice this means that legal executives can never represent individuals in the High Court, Court of Appeal or Supreme Court.

What does this mean?

For those unfamiliar with the system of the courts in England and Wales, this essentially means that legal executives can only appear in the first few courts on the ladder of the justice system. Any representation needed in cases that are appealed, or more serious offences tried in higher courts, will be done by barrister or solicitors with higher rights of audience.

In practice this means that when people decide on their legal career, they should have a rough idea of how highly they value appearing in court. If someone has their sights set on oral argument in large courts then maybe the career of a legal executive is not for them. However, if someone prefers the out of court aspects of the legal profession but with the knowledge that court appearances can be a possibility, then this may be an exciting career possibility.

In conclusion

Therefore, to summarise what rights of audience legal executives have, we can say that they are able to represent people in court at the ground floor level of the legal system and can qualify further to appear in higher courts.

However, they will never be able to gain the same rights of audience as solicitors or barristers and so this should be factored into the decision of those looking to start their legal careers.

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