Section 12: Meaning of "reserved legal activity" and "legal activity"

Legal Services Act 2007 · 2007 c. 29View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 3: Reserved legal activities

In this Act "reserved legal activity" means—

the exercise of a right of audience;
the conduct of litigation;
reserved instrument activities;
probate activities;
notarial activities;
the administration of oaths.

Schedule 2 makes provision about what constitutes each of those activities.

In this Act "legal activity" means—

an activity which is a reserved legal activity within the meaning of this Act as originally enacted, and
any other activity which consists of one or both of the following—
the provision of legal advice or assistance in connection with the application of the law or with any form of resolution of legal disputes;
the provision of representation in connection with any matter concerning the application of the law or any form of resolution of legal disputes.

But "legal activity" does not include any activity of a judicial or quasi-judicial nature (including acting as a mediator).

For the purposes of subsection (3) "legal dispute" includes a dispute as to any matter of fact the resolution of which is relevant to determining the nature of any person's legal rights or liabilities.

Section 24 makes provision for adding legal activities to the reserved legal activities.

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This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.