Enforcement – Rules and Guidance

All applicants for CILEx membership or authorisation, members of CILEX, CILEX Practitioners and individuals holding an approved role in one of our regulated firms are required under the Enforcement Rules to declare in writing certain conduct that engages the Code and may affect their suitability to become, or remain, a CILEx member or regulated legal professional. This is referred to as “Prior Conduct”.   

Prior conduct declarations must also be made on behalf of our regulated firms by the owner(s) of the firm, or by those holding certain approved roles within it. Prior conduct declarations relating to firms is referred to as “Fitness to Own”.  

A failure to declare prior conduct and provide full details of the conduct when required may result an application for membership or authorisation being rejected and/or disciplinary action being taken.  

Information about  what to declare, how to complete  a declaration and what happens after a declaration is made can be found in the Prior Conduct and Fitness to own sections of our website.  

The Enforcement Team investigate and (where appropriate) take disciplinary action in relation to breaches of the CILEx Code of Conduct that amount to professional misconduct by those we regulate. This is usually the result of a complaint or report to us by a third party.   

Information about how we deal with reports of misconduct can be in the  Complaints against an Individual and Complaints against a Firm sections of our website. 

Rules

The Rules that govern our investigation and disciplinary processes are available in the Enforcement section of our Resource Library. They include the:  

• Enforcement Rules
• Enforcement handbook (and its annexes):

Annex 1 – Powers of the PCP 

Annex 2 – Sanctions Guidance 

Annex 3 – Publication Policy 

Annex 4 – Adjournment Policy 

Annex 5 – Health Committee 

Annex 6 – Fines Policy 

Annex 7 – Costs Policy 

There are other rules governing your individual membership and authorisation that you must follow. These can be found in the section of our website headed Rights and Responsibilities for regulated individuals and Rules and Guidance for regulated firms. A failure to comply with the rules that apply to you may also result in disciplinary action being taken.  

Guidance  

CILEx Regulation also provides guidance, including on professional conduct and ethics to help you understand the standards of behaviour expected of you and how the Code applies in practice. The guidance is not exhaustive and doesn’t form part of our rules. However, we will take it into account if your conduct is called into question and you may be called upon to justify any departure from it.

We take a risks-based and outcomes focused approach to enforcement and aim to ensure that any action we take is proportionate, consistent, transparent and targeted at the conduct that pose the biggest risk to the public, reputation of the profession and the regulatory objectives.   We are also guided by our organisation values of being efficient; firm; flexible, fair and focused.  

Practically speaking, this means that we are likely to take formal disciplinary action where there are serious and/ or persistent and repeated breaches of the Code. As well as the type of conduct leading to the breach, will consider, amongst other things, the circumstances surrounding the breach and a combination of the following:  

• Motivation for conduct: we are less likely to take disciplinary action where the breach is shown to be the result of a genuine, unintentional mistake. However, conduct that is deliberate, premeditated, involves dishonesty or a lack of integrity, is motivated by unfair discrimination on the grounds of a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, class, social background or political beliefs and/or conduct that  involves a reckless disregard for your legal and regulatory obligations is more likely to result in disciplinary action being taken.  

• Effect of conduct: We are more likely to take disciplinary action where the breach (actually or potentially) adversely affects a substantial or high value matter, or causes significant financial loss, physical or mental harm, reputational damage or a significant adverse impact on the environment.     

• Affected parties: We are more likely to take action if multiple parties, and/ or vulnerable persons are affected by your conduct.  

• Source and strength of Evidence: We are more likely to take action where there is reliable evidence, including where we have evidence from multiple witnesses, other regulators, investigatory bodies and/ or the courts.  

• Ongoing risk: We consider the risk posed to public, clients, reputation of the profession and regulatory objectives by your conduct when deciding what action to take. We also consider things like whether and how you engage with us, your area of work and level of supervision when looking at the risk posed by your conduct.  

• Other factors:  We will also consider any other relevant aggravating or mitigating factors surrounding your conduct when deciding what action to take. The list of factors we consider is not exhaustive and may include whether you abused your position, or authority, whether you unfairly took advantage of others, how recent the conduct was, your disciplinary history and whether any remorse or insight has been shown.