Crown Prosecutor - Eastleigh, Reading, Portsmouth

As a crown prosecutor, your role involves advocacy in the Magistrates Court, where you will spend most of your time prosecuting the full range of courts.

Client Details: As a crown prosecutor you're based in the magistrates' court, working with prosecution teams to review and present evidence in cases ranging from common assault to drugs offences. The crown prosecutor position is our entry level lawyer role, ideal if you're a newly qualified lawyer or have no criminal law experience. You gain a wealth of exposure in the criminal court, further developing your legal knowledge and career progression. Initially, you work on more straightforward cases but should progress quickly to dealing with more serious casework. On completion of your crown prosecutor training, you're able to advise police and other investigators (except statutory pre-charge advice), undertake advocacy, review and undertake case preparation in summary and either-way matters heard in the magistrates' court.

Your role will involve working with stakeholders, including the police, court staff and defence solicitors. You will support victims and witnesses attending court to give evidence in contested matters. You benefit from a structured induction, four-month training plan and opportunities to shadow colleagues across the organisation. Once you gain further experience, you have options to progress into senior crown prosecutor, crown advocate and legal manager roles.

Your roles and responsibilities:

• To prepare and present cases for prosecution in the magistrates' court
• To advise police and other investigators on casework in a wide range of summary-only and some either-way offences
• To decide, based on evidence, whether prosecutions should proceed or be discontinued in matters heard in the magistrates' court
• To explain our decisions clearly to stakeholders including magistrates, counsel, victims, witnesses and the police
• To work effectively as part of a multi-skilled team

Person specification:

• You must be a qualified lawyer
• You must demonstrate your commitment to public service, making a difference to the communities we serve and our Crown Prosecution Service values
• You're focused on personal development and career progression

Behaviours:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills:

• You must demonstrate motivation.
• You must demonstrate the appropriate level of legal intellect.

Profile Qualifications:

• Legally qualified: You must be a qualified solicitor or barrister. You must be able to obtain a valid Practising Certificate for England and Wales.
• Academic: You must have a law degree, Common Professional Examination and/or Graduate Diploma in Law.
• Professional: You must have completed a Legal Practice Course, Solicitors Qualifying Exam or Bar Professional Training Course and the relevant pupillage and training contract - or have received full exemption from the relevant professional regulatory body, either the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Bar Standards Board.
• CILEx: You must be a Fellow of CILEx and a CILEx Advocate/Litigator holding all three advocacy certificates providing you with a 'general qualification' within the meaning of s (3) (c) Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. You must have a right of audience in relation to any class of proceedings in any part of the Senior Courts, or all proceedings in county courts or magistrates' courts in order to meet the requirements for a Crown Prosecutor specified by section 1 Prosecution of Offences Act 1985.

If you apply and are found not to possess any of the above, any offer of employment will be withdrawn, or contract terminated. You must be a qualified solicitor or barrister. You must be able to obtain a valid Practising Certificate for England and Wales. If successful, we must receive your practising certificate as soon as possible. We will not be able to progress pre-employment checks until the practising certificate has been received, and a deadline for this may be set in line with business need. If you're able to meet these requirements by this date, you're eligible to apply.

Job Offer Benefits:

Alongside your salary of £44,520, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £12,897 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose. We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. While the Crown Prosecution Service operates a hybrid working policy, some roles - including the crown prosecutor role - must attend court for the full working week to carry out their role and responsibilities. Delivering justice is a complex pursuit with work that is sometimes emotionally challenging, which is why we offer a range of benefits including:

• a Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28%
• 25 days' leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• lawyer training programme
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working and a family-friendly approach to work
• a Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings
• a range of learning and development activities, an individual learning account, and central and local development opportunities