The People Behind the Process: Reflecting on the Mazur Ruling

The Mazur ruling may reshape how we work, but it mustn’t reshape how our people feel.

Over the past decade that I’ve worked in the personal injury sector, I’ve come to understand and accept that change to our model, processes and ways of working is simply a way of life.

Thematic changes led by regulation or government legislation usually bring the ‘benefit’ of some lead time – providing the space needed to design, prepare and implement whatever model changes are needed. What follows, more often than not, is the rebuilding and repair required to manage the commercial impacts that inevitably follow – as we’ve seen with the Whiplash Tariffs and the increase in the Small Claims Limit.

What’s harder to predict, and often more complex to respond to, are the changes that come from decisions made within the Court system – none more so than the recent ruling in the Mazur & Ors v Charles Russell Speechlys LLP case.

As the legal industry works through what this ruling means for the operational process of litigation and resourcing, what I find more concerning is the potential impact on belief and pride among the many unqualified, but highly experienced, practitioners who deliver brilliant service every day in the personal injury sector.

I’m not attempting to debate whether the requirement for litigation to be conducted by a solicitor is an unsurprising endpoint, a reassertion of a principle that should never have been in doubt or a pivot from guidelines the sector has long operated within. Future cases will no doubt be needed to test the nuances and finer details of these arguments.

What I do want to address, as should the wider legal community, is the issue of how we protect against a wholesale exodus of experience from personal injury – because experienced, but unqualified colleagues decide to call time.

Some may feel frustrated that, despite years of experience and a strong track record of achieving great outcomes for clients, they now need to have their homework ‘marked’ by solicitors who may, in some cases, have less experience than they do. Others may feel that development pathways have now been cut off, no longer able to build their litigation skills. And some who have quietly battled with feelings of self-doubt may now see this as the straw that breaks the camel’s back – that their skills are no longer valued and so they vote with their feet.

I’m talking about the very real human impact that the Mazur ruling has on a thriving professional community – yes, unqualified, but still committed, passionate and experienced. It’s important we acknowledge this as leaders and face into it. Because if we don’t, we risk undermining the very things that make our sector brilliant.

To be clear, this is not about diminishing the achievement of those who have made significant personal sacrifices and invested time and effort to become qualified. Far from it. Attaining professional standards in any discipline deserves huge respect and I applaud anyone who has achieved that goal.

But it’s also true that no one can whistle a symphony, it takes a whole orchestra to play it.

While solicitors have always played a key role in supervising case progression and litigation, this moment is about how people feel and how they respond.

The legal sector has made huge strides in recent years to move away from a perceived three-tier system, with qualified solicitors at the top, CILEX professionals in the middle and unqualified but highly experienced colleagues at the rear. The work hasn’t changed, but professional respect has been strengthened. We must ensure that progress isn’t undone.

Imagine working for several years to become a CILEX Fellow, believing you’ve achieved professional parity, only to be told you now need to do more.

As one colleague put it to me, “It’s like running a marathon and then realising you’ve still got three miles to go.”

It’s not about the additional effort required, it’s about guarding against any sense of not being good enough.

So, what do we do?

We talk about it. We don’t disappear wholly into process, testing supervisory or conduct models to see where the gaps may lie, but instead we also double down on celebrating all legal professionals, regardless of their qualification status, to make sure they continue to see and believe that there is still a flourishing and rewarding career for them in our industry and that the work they do has genuine value.