Law Officers’ Department recognised for 'excellence'

Tuesday 29 October 2019

Jersey's Law Officers’ Department has been awarded an accreditation for "excellence in practice management and client care" following an independent assessment.

Lexcel is the England and Wales Law Society’s legal practice quality mark and provides a framework of standards for ‘excellence in practice management’, which requires more than 50 best practice policies to be documented and complied with.

Lexcel assessor, Tracy Thompson from the Centre for Assessment, spent three-and-a-half days at the department at the end of September, reviewing Departmental policies and procedures, interviewing staff and reviewing open and closed matters to ensure that the documented policies had been put into practice. 

Mrs Thompson concluded that “the Department is extremely well managed and organised and in particular proved itself to be very strong in the area of people management".

Pictured: The Attorney General said the accreditation was something the entire department "can be very proud of".

Mrs Thompson identified many Lexcel ‘areas of good practice’ and observed that “the Department demonstrated a truly supportive wellbeing environment”, and that “staff are proud to be working for the Department and are proud of each other’s abilities and dedication, which results in the Law Officers’ Department’s excellent reputation".

In order to maintain Lexcel accreditation after the first year, the Law Officers’ Department will have to continue to operate at the standards set by Lexcel and will be required to pass an annual assessment.

“We have been working towards achieving this accolade for a number of years and I am grateful to all the Department’s staff for their hard work and dedication which has been recognised by this award," the Attorney General, Robert MacRae QC, said. 

"Achieving Lexcel accreditation is something that all staff can be very proud of. It shows that the Department is operating to the highest standards as determined by an external, independent assessor.”