Independent Assessment Guidance for Assessors

Independent assessments are intended to provide additional evidence of the candidate’s ability against the requirements of a post. They play an important part throughout the course of the selection process as they are considered by the sift and interview panels and contribute to the candidate’s overall grades.

Independent assessments are given equal weight to every other source of evidence the JAC uses to assess merit. The panels look for specific examples within the independent assessments and factor these into the overall grades.

A well evidenced independent assessment should support and correlate with the candidate’s own evidence, though it is the strength of the totality of the evidence available to the panel that will determine a candidate’s grade. A strong independent assessment is not a substitute for evidence given by the candidate that has not been presented in a way that demonstrates the competencies/skills and abilities.

How to complete the form

You will be asked to provide specific examples of the candidate’s performance against each competency/skill and ability area listed on the independent assessment form. An example of a competency based independent assessment form can be found here. Please note that the independent assessment form will differ for each exercise, therefore you must use the copy provided by the Selection Exercise Team which will be sent to you via email.

You should provide specific examples that address each of the competency/skill and ability headings in the independent assessment form, avoiding generalities and assertions as these do not provide evidence.

You should think about examples that are based on challenging, complex or highly sensitive situations, particularly if the candidate is applying for a salaried role. You may wish to speak to the candidate to remind yourself of any specific cases or events that you could write about.

If for any reason you are unable to act as an assessor, please contact the candidate directly and ask them to nominate another assessor.

The SOAR model

To help you structure your examples, you may use the SOAR model:

Situation: briefly explain a situation the candidate was directly involved in that resulted in a distinctive outcome
Objective: briefly describe what the candidate had to achieve
Action: describe the action the candidate took and how they achieved the objective (this section provides the most important evidence and should be the focus of your answer)
Result: describe the outcome of the candidate’s action

Examples of helpful and unhelpful independent assessments

Below are extracts from a helpful independent assessment. The assessor knows the candidate’s work well and gives specific, detailed and relevant examples:

Exercising Judgement:

The candidate represented the Defendant in the matter of A v B in a road traffic accident claim. Causation of the Claimant’s injuries was disputed. The candidate felt that the Defendant had good prospects of challenging the injury claim but limited prospects of challenging the vehicle damage claim. The candidate presented their case calmly, clearly and concisely, despite encountering aggressive pressure at the door of the Court. After giving advice, the candidate was able to negotiate a settlement of the vehicle damage claim and the Claimant agreed to abandon the injury claim, thereby saving a significant amount in damages and costs.

Possessing and Building Knowledge:

The candidate has excellent knowledge of both law and procedure, which enables them to be both practical and resourceful in their handling of cases. I have numerous examples of the candidate using their knowledge to good effect but a recent one is when they represented the Defendant in C v D Insurance. The Claimant had failed to comply with numerous directions and caused repeated delays. Prior to the hearing, the claim was struck out on the grounds that the Claimant had not paid a fee. Normally in these circumstances the Defendant would be unable to obtain an enforceable costs order under the Qualified One Way Costs Shifting rules. However, the candidate argued that the rules should be dis-applied and persuaded the court that the Claimant had obstructed the just disposal of proceedings prior to strike out, so he should not be allowed costs protection. The judge agreed, reinstated the claim and struck it out again on different grounds, giving the Defendant the enforceable costs order that they sought.

Below are extracts from a less helpful assessment. It is extremely brief because the assessor does not know the candidate well and has to rely on the comments of colleagues. It contains no specific examples and so provides no evidence to help the panel. A candidate is not marked down for an assessment like this, it is simply a wasted opportunity for the panel to receive additional evidence.

Exercising Judgement:

From speaking with other colleagues in [location], the candidate seems to have settled in well as a DDJ and there are no doubts about their intellect or judgement. I have not had the benefit of seeing their appraisal.

Possessing and Building Knowledge:

Again, from speaking to colleagues they appear to have good knowledge and one mentioned that they have publications under their belt.

Additional guidance for judicial assessors

If you are a judicial assessor, you should look at providing specific examples of the candidate’s performance in their judicial role.

If a candidate has recently been appraised and you are the candidate’s leadership judge or most recent appraiser, you should draw on this evidence where available and relevant. If you are the candidate’s leadership judge but not the candidate’s most recent appraising judge, you should first discuss the content of the appraisal with its author.

You should use the appraisal only to show if a candidate can meet the requirements against the competency/skills and abilities framework for the role. An appraisal is primarily a developmental tool and not all material may be appropriate for an independent assessment.

The full appraisal should not simply be copied and pasted into the assessment form, rather assessors should identify particular sections that are relevant to the competency/skills and abilities framework for the role and write about these under the relevant headings.

Below are examples of an assessor using the candidate’s appraisal to demonstrate that the candidate can meet the requirements against the competency framework for the role:

Assimilating and Clarifying Information:

On their appraisal day a case was moved into their list only 30 minutes before the start of the court day so although they had arrived early to ensure all their cases were pre-read, they had to assimilate and absorb a new file of papers and skeleton arguments on an unusual point of law at very short notice. During the course of argument further points were also raised by the advocates. The candidate coped extremely well with the situation and extracted the relevant points and issues from the papers and ensured the advocates addressed those issues. The candidate listened carefully to the additional arguments raised to assess relevance and once the candidate had heard enough to do so, directed the arguments to the most pertinent points.

Managing Work Efficiently:

On their appraisal day the candidate had a busy list of short appointments and had an additional case added at 1 hours’ notice to an already full list. The candidate arrived early to pre-read the papers in the originally listed cases and had identified in advance the relevant issues and arguments in each case. Where the candidate was able, they had also pre-read digital files. When faced with an additional case being added at late notice the candidate responded calmly and quickly and read and assimilated the case file. Their time management was excellent. They ensured the advocates and parties focused on the pertinent issues and intervened where necessary to narrow the issues, whilst still allowing full argument on the pertinent points. Their list kept to time throughout the day. When the candidate had any breaks between cases, they dealt with boxwork and drafted orders to assist the staff.

Additional guidance for professional assessors

You will be asked whether there is anything that you would like to draw to our attention. In this question, we are interested only in areas of concern. It is helpful to know when the concern was identified and whether the candidate is aware of it. If the candidate was made aware, you should indicate if improvement has been demonstrated.

This information may be used to help the selection panel to identify issues to explore further during the section process. No information drawn from independent assessments will be shared directly with the candidates. Information provided by independent assessors is strictly confidential.

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