Decision details

Background
We have appointed a Solicitor Emma Howard as a Solicitor in January 2025, to undertake prosecutions in the Magistrates Court. Whilst Emma can appear as a Solicitor in the Magistrates Court the Head of Legal & Democratic Services & Monitoring Officer has determined that all Solicitors/Barristers/Lawyers must have the relevant skill and experience to undertake this work and therefore requires authorisation to his satisfaction to attend the Magistrates Court, ensuring there is proper governance in place to monitor legal advocacy and attendance at the Magistrates Court.

Purpose:
To enable the effective conduct of legal proceedings by a BANES lawyer on behalf of the council.

In accordance with section 2.35.5 of the Constitution the Head of Legal & Democratic Services hereby delegates authority to Emma Howard Lawyer (Regulatory & Prosecution) the power to:-
Institute and conduct all civil and criminal proceedings by the Council.
Defend or participate in any legal proceedings brought against the Council (or its employees as a result of actions incurred during the course of their employment) or where the Council’s interests are affected and to negotiate settlement.
To facilitate the discharge of Council functions both civil and criminal across the district in so far as relevant to the role.

Option 1 -

To require the team leader to approve all prosecutions on behalf of all regulatory and prosecution lawyers. This would be time consuming and an inefficient use of council resources.

Option 2

Instructing External Counsel/Barristers to undertake the Magistrates work - whilst at time we do have to instruct Counsel /Barristers this is generally on more complex cases and it would be an inefficient use of Council funds/resources to do this, which is why we require authorisation for Emma Howard