Explanatory note
(This note is not part of the Rules)
These Rules amend the Justices' Clerks (Qualifications of Assistants) Rules 1979 so as to provide that:
an assistant who held a training certificate on 1st January 1999 may continue to act as a clerk in court for the duration of the course to which the certificate relates;
an assistant whose employment is registered with the Law Society as a training contract may act as a clerk in court;
a person employed as a clerk in court before 1st January 1999 who is not qualified under rule 4(1)(a) (that is to say, as a solicitor or a barrister, or by having passed all the examinations for one of those professions) may accept further contracts of employment as a clerk in court after that date, provided that the interval between two successive contracts does not exceed three months.
This last provision does not enable a person to act as a clerk in court after 31st December 2008 who could not otherwise have done so.