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Getting started as an advocate

From a blank practice profile to a listing clients can book, and the portal working underneath it.

Open this page Reviewed 24 September 2026

Step by step

  1. Complete your practice profile Practice settings holds your designation, bar council and enrolment number, years of practice, courts, languages and practice areas. The last of those is what search filters on: an advocate with no practice area set is effectively unlisted.
  2. Publish a fee card Consultation fee and hourly rate. A published fee is the single biggest difference between a profile that gets booked and one that gets looked at — a blank fee reads as "expensive" to most people.
  3. Get verified Verification checks your enrolment details against your bar council record. Until it clears, your profile says "verification pending" and sits below verified advocates in results.
  4. Open your first case file A case file is the matter: parties, court, stage, hearings, documents, work log and the client’s view of it. Everything else in the portal hangs off it.
  5. Track the matter in court Case tracker pulls the cause list entry, the hearing history and the orders from the court’s own data, so the diary updates without anybody re-typing it.
  6. Draft something from the library Templates has the forms a practice produces over and over — vakalatnama, bail application, legal notice, written statement — with your details already filled in.
  7. Raise an invoice The work log on a case file becomes invoice lines in one step, so billed time is time that was actually recorded rather than time somebody remembered.

Worth knowing

  • Your public profile only appears in search once your account is active and your practice profile has a practice area on it.
  • Templates are forms, not advice. What is filed is your own work and carries your own signature.

Questions

How long does verification take?
It is a manual check against your bar council record, usually within a working day or two. You can use the whole portal while it is pending; only your position in public search is affected.
Do I have to list publicly to use the portal?
No. Practice management — cases, hearings, drafting, invoicing — works whether or not you are listed. Listing is what brings enquiries.
Can my juniors use it?
Yes. My chamber invites them, and each gets their own sign-in with access to the matters you share. See Your chamber.

Next

Your practice profile What clients see, which fields search uses, and the ones worth spending ten minutes on. Getting verified What is checked, what the badge means, and what it does not mean. Your fee card and availability Publishing what you charge, and the slots people can book. Case files: what goes in one Parties, court, stage, hearings, documents and the work log — and what the client sees of it. Raising an invoice From logged work to an issued bill, and what happens after you send it.
All guides Reviewed 24 September 2026