The CRL Board had a special meeting on 21 October 2025, primarily to discuss the ongoing implications of the Mazur judgment and what we can do to help. We recognised the ongoing distress the judgment has caused to many of those we regulate and agreed to do all we can as a regulator to end the uncertainty quickly. In this respect, we welcomed the close working relations established with CILEX as the membership body, the LSB and other concerned regulators.
We reviewed progress with the action plan the Board had agreed at its meeting on 30 September 2025 and noted the significant progress made. We have submitted an application to the LSB to enable us to provide standalone litigation practice rights and have pressed the LSB to agree this as soon as possible. At the same time, we have put in place processes to deal with the volume of applications for practice rights we expect to receive. We are recruiting additional staff to handle the increased demand for practice rights authorisation and are streamlining our processes. We have also had productive discussions with ULaw on their parallel route to obtain rights, and they are setting up extra provision. We are very happy to receive applications* for standalone practice rights now.
We had a good discussion on what, if any, retrospective enforcement action should be taken and agreed that CILEX members practising in line with the prevailing guidance and their firms’ procedures in operation at the time pre-Mazur are not required to self-report to CRL. A fuller statement will be added to the FAQ section on our website. We also recognised that there remain uncertainties on the judgment’s implications for certain groups of lawyers- we discussed for instance those litigating before the Court of Protection- and agreed to provide as much clarity as we can.
We noted the calls for amendments to the 2007 Legal Services Act. Whilst our immediate focus is on supporting those who require practice rights under the current regulatory arrangements, our longstanding position is that the Act needs a thorough review. We stand ready to help the Ministry of Justice and Legal Services Board on making the case for change.
Finally, we noted that this is a fast-moving situation and would encourage those affected to look at the relevant pages and FAQ on our website which is regularly updated. We will also be dealing with the implications of the Mazur judgment at our next webinar on 10 November 2025.
Our next Board update will take place on 6 November 2025. If you would like to find out more, please visit our website, read our Board papers or get in touch.
*Please direct applications to: practicerights@cilexregulation.org.uk
