Society of Professional McKenzie Friends Ltd. Company Number: 09022389 © 2014 All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
The Society of Professional McKenzie Friends Ltd.
We are the Society of Professional McKenzie Friends.
Our members offer a low cost alternative to instructing a solicitor.
All are insured, competent professionals you can rely on.
Instead of instructing a solicitor or barrister, some people choose to represent themselves at court, in which case they are entitled to the reasonable assistance of a friend (known as a McKenzie Friend).
Solicitors and Barristers must adhere to standards of conduct and there are regulatory bodies to ensure that they do, but there is no equivalent regulator controlling the activities of McKenzie Friends. Anyone can call themselves a McKenzie Friend.
That is why this McKenzie Friends Directory exists, to protect you, the consumer. Our members are competent, are required to be insured, and to comply with court rules and good practice.
On this website you will find our Directory of approved McKenzie Friends, the standards you can expect of them, and a complaints procedure for those occasions when they fail to live up to those standards.
CUSTOMER COMMENT OF THE WEEK
“Thanks to my Mckenzie Friend I am still in contact with my daughter, four years on from his intervention. He provided an extremely inexpensive service and promoted non-confrontational methods of interacting with my ex-wife. – Many thanks. “
Read more previous customer comments here, and this independent report: which concludes: “The findings overall suggest that customers find the SPMF service to be beneficial.”
Are you a McKenzie Friend? Find out about membership on this link
SCAM ALERT. Since Feb 2021, a rogue website has published details of our members, and is charging a referral fee. We charge no referral fee. Our members can be contacted directly on their personal phone or email shown here. You don’t need to go through any third party to engage them.
Recently, a number of websites have stated that McKenzie Friends cannot give Legal Advice. This is incorrect, and may be due to the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence.
The authority for McKenzie Friends to give advice rests on an 1831 judgment by the then most senior judge in the country, Lord Chief Justice Tenterden, who said in the case of Collier v Hicks: ‘Any person, whether he be a professional man or not, may attend as a friend of either party, may take notes, may quietly make suggestions, and give advice.”
This has remained good law ever since, and gave rise to what is now referred to as a “Mckenzie Friend.” Clearly it allows the Friend to be both a professional, and to give advice.
Recently, a number of websites have stated that McKenzie Friends cannot give Legal Advice. This is incorrect, and may be due to the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence.
The authority for McKenzie Friends to give advice rests on an 1831 judgment by the then most senior judge in the country, Lord Chief Justice Tenterden, who said in the case of Collier v Hicks: ‘Any person, whether he be a professional man or not, may attend as a friend of either party, may take notes, may quietly make suggestions, and give advice.”
This has remained good law ever since, and gave rise to what is now referred to as a “Mckenzie Friend.” Clearly it allows the Friend to be both a professional, and to give advice.
Can a McKenzie Friend give you legal advice?