Senior Legal Officer (Ref: 24172)

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

Proud to serve. Proud to keep justice going.

Our Senior Legal Officers play a critical role in helping deliver justice. If you’re intent on serving the public by delivering excellent service, and are enthusiastic about working with the judiciary, then this role gives you the opportunity to play a pivotal role within HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS).

About us

Part of HMCTS, the Tribunals Directorate is responsible for the effective administration of Tribunals in England and Wales and non-devolved Tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. We work with an independent judiciary across a wide range of jurisdictions to provide a fair, efficient and effective justice system.

Your role

Working within the legal operations framework in the Tribunals jurisdiction, the Senior Tribunal Caseworker/Legal Officer will support the effective administration of Tribunal business.

The post holder will do this by managing a team consisting of a minimum of 9 Tribunal Caseworker/Legal Officer staff. Team leadership and management duties and responsibilities are likely to take up a significant proportion of the post holder’s time. Alongside this, the post holder will also be expected to undertake complex casework and assessment activity, in order to determine how best to advance caseloads and remove any barriers to effective and timely case progression.

This Senior Legal Officer role will be based in the Employment Tribunal in one of the following locations in London. The location will be confirmed on appointment.

Watford: Employment Tribunals, Radius House, 51 Clarendon Rd, Watford WD17 1HP

London East Employment Tribunals, 2nd Floor, Import Building, 2 Clove Crescent, London, E14 2BE

London Central Employment Tribunals, London Tribunal Centre, 7 Newgate St, London EC1A 7AZ

London South Employment Tribunals Montague Court,101 London Road, Croydon, CR0 2RF

About you

Are you able to reflect on an issue and take an informed and impartial approach to your work, making evidence-based decisions? If you do, this varied and challenging role is for you.

A confident communicator and decision maker, you will use your skills and abilities to effectively work and engage with all court users. You’ll understand the importance of impartial decision making, and the need to understand a wide range of information at pace. You’ll have the ability to communicate with multiple levels of stakeholders internal and external to the Tribunal, with varying communication methods and the ability to adapt your communication to your audience.

For a full job description, please read supporting document included below before applying.

Experience

A Senior Tribunal Caseworker/Legal Officer will be expected to have knowledge, skills and experience and provide evidence at both the sift and interview stages which include:

• Detailed knowledge of the legal and administrative functions of the Tribunal
• Detailed knowledge of tribunal procedure
• Competent use of IT and legal resource material
• Presentation skills
• A law degree or equivalent experience is desirable
• Experience leading a team is desirable
• Experience working as a Legal Officer/Tribunal Caseworker is desirable
• A law degree or equivalent technical experience is desirable.

The equivalent technical experience has been defined as:

“The demonstration of a transferable decision-making aptitude, working within a set framework or guidance and previous precedents, under a form of supervision”

Interview Schedule Notice

Interviews are scheduled to take place in mid-December 2026. Please note that rescheduling will only be considered in exceptional circumstances, and any rearrangements must still occur within the interview period.

Further details

New recruits to the Civil Service joining MoJ are expected to join at the band minimum.

These operational roles are customer facing, requiring successful applicants to be office based to provide HMCTS services to the public. Non-contractual hybrid working may be available, but we cannot facilitate requests for a particular work from home/working in the office schedule.

Working Pattern

The roles are offered on a full-time basis. Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week Monday to Friday. However, requests for part-time/reduced hours working will be considered at the point of provisional offer, subject to meeting business requirements within the relevant business area in accordance with the MoJ’s Flexible Working policy.

Occasional travel to other courts

For this post, occasional travel to other sites may be required

Technical Skills

Legal scenario will be given at interview as part of the assessment A law degree or equivalent technical experience is desirable.

The equivalent technical experience has been defined as: “The demonstration of a transferable decision-making aptitude, working within a set framework or guidance and previous precedents, under a form of supervision”

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Please refer to Job Description.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £49,325, HM Courts and Tribunals Service contributes £14,289 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Technical skills.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
• Telephone : 0345 241 5359

Recruitment team

• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitm…

https://jobs.justice.gov.uk/careers/JobDetail/24172?entityId=24172