PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR SQE2 LEGAL WRITING ASSESSMENT - Competence Criteria

Sep 26, 2026

Uploaded by Ben

Performance Indicators for SQE2 Legal Writing Assessment outlines competence and non-competence indicators across multiple skill areas. It specifies what an effective candidate demonstrates when including relevant facts, structuring information clearly, and keeping advice focused on the client’s circumstances, needs, objectives, priorities, and risks. It also defines expectations for clear, precise, concise, and recipient-appropriate language, avoiding unnecessary legal jargon. Additional sections set standards for correctly and comprehensively applying law to the client’s situation, including recognition of ethical issues and professional conduct responsibilities, with appropriate judgment and integrity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Performance indicators for competence

Include relevant facts

Use a logical structure

Advice/content is client and recipient focused

Use clear, precise, concise and acceptable language

Law and professional conduct

Apply the law correctly

Apply the law comprehensively and identify ethical issues

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR SQE2 LEGAL WRITING ASSESSMENT | Skills | Indicators demonstrating competence | Indicators that do not demonstrate competence | | --- | --- | --- | | Include relevant facts | • The candidate refers to and/or addresses the salient facts provided in their instructions. Salient facts could include facts which are important in ensuring the client’s needs/ objectives are met, or relevant to legal advice | • The candidate includes many facts in their answer which have no bearing on their legal advice | | | | | | Use a logical structure | • The candidate’s presentation of information is well-organised, set out clearly and easy to follow
• The reader is able to understand the
candidate’s answer without difficulty | • The candidate’s presentation of information is confused and rambling
• The reader is unable to follow or understand the candidate’s answer | | | | | | Advice/content is client and recipient focused | • The candidate demonstrates an understanding of the client’s circumstances including their needs, objectives and priorities
• The candidate, where relevant and appropriate, explores options and advises on strategies and solutions
• The candidate takes into account who the client is; recognises the key issues in the case and considers any risks | • The candidate does not understand the client’s perspective e.g. they focus on irrelevant issues /provide extraneous advice/fail to advise on relevant options, strategies and solutions
• The candidate fails to take into account who the client is and does not recognise the key issues in the case or consider any risks
• The candidate lacks empathy or sensitivity if imparting difficult or unwelcome news | | | • Where appropriate, the candidate imparts any difficult or unwelcome news clearly and sensitively | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | Use clear, precise, concise and acceptable language which is appropriate to the recipient | • The reader understands the candidate’s use of language and clarity of expression
• The candidate’s language is appropriate to the recipient and the situation
• The candidate avoids unnecessary technical terms/legal jargon
• The candidates uses formalities appropriate to the context and purpose of the communication | • The reader struggles to understand the candidate’suse of language; the answer lacks clarity and/or is poorly expressed
• The reader’s understanding is adversely affected by the density or brevity of the answer
• The candidate uses language which is not appropriate to the recipient and/or the situation e.g. candidate adopts an essay-style approach
• The candidate uses unnecessary or confusing technical terms/legal jargon | | | | | | Law | Indicators demonstrating competence | Indicators that do not demonstrate competence | | Apply the law correctly to the client’s situation | • The candidate identifies the correct legal principles and applies them correctly to the facts of the case | • The candidate does not identify the correct legal principles
• The candidate does not apply the legal principles correctly to the client’s situation | | | | | | Apply the law comprehensively to the client’s situation, identifying any ethical | • The candidate’s writing is of sufficient detail in the context of the client’s situation and the relevant factual and legal issues | • The candidate’s writing is not sufficiently detailed in the context of the client’s situation and the relevant factual and legal issues | | and professional conduct issues and exercising judgment to resolve them honestly and with integrity | • Where relevant, the candidate recognises ethical issues and exercises effective judgment in addressing them in accordance with the SRA Principles and rules of professional conduct | • The candidate does not recognise ethical issues or exercise effective judgment in addressing them in accordance with the SRA Principles and rules of professional conduct | | --- |

FAQs

What competence indicators apply to including relevant facts in SQE2 legal writing?

A competent candidate refers to and addresses the salient facts in the instructions. They avoid including many irrelevant facts that do not bear on legal advice.

How should a candidate present information to meet the logical-structure standard?

The candidate should organise information clearly and make it easy to follow. The reader should be able to understand the answer without difficulty, rather than receiving a confused or rambling response.

What does the document require for applying law and handling ethical issues?

The candidate must identify correct legal principles and apply them correctly and comprehensively to the client’s situation. Where relevant, they should recognise ethical issues and exercise effective judgment aligned with SRA Principles and rules of professional conduct.

Sep 26, 2026

Uploaded by Ben