Accreditation to provide CPD training
Become an Accredited Costs Lawyer
Under our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Rules, Costs Lawyers are required to achieve 12 CPD points per practising year, which equates to 12 hours of CPD. If you have been a Costs lawyer for at least four years, you can apply to the CLSB for accreditation to provide training to your colleagues and other professionals.
Since 1 January 2021, it has not been mandatory to be accredited before you can provide CPD training to other Costs Lawyers. Rather, accreditation indicates to participants that you will meet certain standards when delivering your training, giving those participants confidence in you.
Accredited Costs Lawyers are expected to comply with the Accredited Costs Lawyer Rules when they provide training to other practitioners. We may audit your training provision, either upon your application for accredited status or during your period of accreditation, to check for quality and compliance with the rules. Please ensure you have read and understood the rules before applying for accredited status.
Accredited Costs Lawyers are entitled to use the Mark of Accreditation, in accordance with the Terms of Use, to indicate they are accredited to provide training by the Costs Lawyer Standards Board.
To apply for accreditation, or to renew your existing accreditation, please go to our forms page.
Find an Accredited Costs Lawyer
If you are looking for a Costs Lawyer who is accredited to provide CPD training, please visit our Accredited Costs Lawyers page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Only Costs Lawyers with a current practising certificate, who have held a practising certificate for at least four years are eligible to apply for accredited status.
Costs Lawyers must hold a current practising certificate throughout their period of accreditation. Accredited Costs Lawyers who voluntarily relinquish their practising certificate, do not renew it, or have it suspended or revoked under the Disciplinary Rules and Procedures or Practising Rules during the period of accreditation will be removed from the Register of Accredited Costs Lawyers.
If this is your first application, or your accreditation has been lapsed for more than a year, please request an application from from the forms page on our website. If you are currently accredited we will email you regarding renewal about a month before your accreditation expires.
If your accreditation has lapsed within the last year please contact us and we will resend you the renewal email. Your new period of accreditation will start from the end of the previous one.
The current fee is £125.
The period of accreditation is 3 years. We will contact you about a month before your current accreditation expires to see if you wish to renew for a further period.
Once your application is approved we will email you an accreditation certificate. We cannot process applications until payment is received. After this we usually respond within 2 working days. We find that payment from some organisations can take several weeks to arrive after the application has been sent. If there are any problems with your application we will usually contact you before waiting for payment to be received.
Accreditation by the CLSB is a badge of quality. Accredited Costs Lawyers must abide by the Accredited Costs Lawyer Rules which help ensure quality of provision. Further quality checks are made at point of renewal of accreditation (when Costs Lawyers are asked to provide sample training materials and demonstrate compliance with the Rules), and in the event of a complaint or concern being raised, when a more detailed investigation is undertaken (see our Supervision Policy).
On what grounds would you refuse an application for accreditation?
If a Costs Lawyer cannot demonstrate compliance with the Accredited Costs Lawyer Rules, or (in the case of a first application) does not agree to comply with the Rules an application will not be approved.
Rule 2.2 of the Accredited Costs Lawyer Rules allows CLSB to terminate a practitioner’s accreditation in certain circumstances, including:
- Failure to comply with the Accredited Costs Lawyer Rules
- Failure to co-operate fully with an audit
- Failure to otherwise comply with the Accredited Costs Lawyer Rules, if the CLSB believes that the non-compliance is sufficiently serious or irremediable to require termination of the accreditation in the public interest.