Personal Injury

Applying for membership

If you are a solicitor or Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives and are interested in becoming a member of the Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme, please first read Professional accreditation schemes: application criteria and guidance notes (PDF, 86kb).

To obtain a copy of the scheme guidance, assessment questionnaire or re-accreditation documentation, please contact the Accreditation Team.

Briefly, you will need:

• approximately three years' experience of personal injury matters
• to have conducted at least 36 personal injury cases in the past three years
• to submit an application covering all aspects of your personal injury practice and the procedures operated by your firm (applications are assessed by independent practitioners).

If you have any queries about scheme membership requirements, contact the Accreditation Team (t: 0870 606 2566).

Useful links

APIL

Solicitors and barristers work with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) for law reform to improve access to justice.

Accreditation scheme logos

The Law Society has a dedicated website for accreditation scheme members which offers secure access to the Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme logo.

Continuing professional development

All solicitors undertake appropriate training and development activities every year, as stipulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority's continuing professional development (CPD) requirements.

Members of the Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme are required to accumulate at least six CPD hours of personal injury-related training per year.

Moving firms

If you are a Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme member and you move between firms during your membership, you may need to apply for reselection.

You will not need to apply for reselection if:

• a Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme member or a Clinical Negligence Accreditation Scheme member already works at your new firm, or
• your new firm is accredited to the Law Society's Lexcel scheme

The Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme criteria and guidance notes (PDF, 105kb) and the application form (PDF, 36kb) contain full details of the reselection process.

Re-accreditation

Scheme membership doesn't last for ever: every five years, it must be renewed. The process is called re-accreditation.

Re-accreditation is a way of assuring consumers that members of the Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme continue to meet the requirements for membership.

Please contact the Accreditation Unit for information about re-accreditation.