The six activities the Legal Services Act 2007 reserves to authorised persons — and the criminal and contractual consequences of carrying them on without permission.
Not all legal work is open to everyone: a small core of it is fenced off by statute, and crossing that fence is a criminal offence. This chapter begins with what makes an activity reserved and works through the six reserved activities, from rights of audience and conduct of litigation to reserved instruments and probate. It then identifies who may lawfully carry them on — authorised persons regulated by approved regulators and exempt persons such as litigants in person — before examining the section 14 offence, its penalties, and its effect on fee agreements. It closes with the distinctions that catch people out, such as will drafting against probate and contracts against transfers of land, and how Alternative Business Structures let non-lawyers own and manage firms delivering reserved work.
