This article is written by Vanya Verma from O.P. Jindal Global University.
This article has been published by Sneha Mahawar.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Federation of Law Societies of Canada’s National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) is a standing committee. Administrators of provincial and territorial law societies, members of the practising bar, and representatives of the Council of Canadian Law Deans are among the committee’s members.
NCA assists Canada’s law societies in safeguarding the public interest by ensuring that anyone who received their legal education and training outside of Canada has the necessary knowledge to practise law in Canada. They teach people how to increase their understanding of Canadian law so that it is comparable to what they would learn in a recognised Canadian common law degree programme. The NCA does this by evaluating your academic background and work experience. The NCA then uses a single standard to identify which examinations or studies you need to take to either fill in knowledge gaps or demonstrate that you have the necessary information.
NCA Assessment
On a case-by-case basis, the team evaluates applications from legal systems that do not have a significant common law component, such as civil law. You are unlikely to be recognised for your legal education and expertise if you have little common law exposure (academic or professional).
You can get the required common law exposure by-
- Enrolling in an LL.M. programme or taking individual courses or;
- Becoming licenced as a lawyer, barrister, or solicitor in a common-law jurisdiction by passing substantive course work or exams or;
- Becoming certified as a paralegal or notary in a common-law jurisdiction.
In each case, the Executive Director has sole discretion in determining whether some of the courses taken can meet the NCA’s standards.
If you enroll in individual courses, the NCA will reconsider your case once you have successfully completed at least four common law subjects, according to NCA policy (Assessment Reconsideration).
If you like, you can meet the remaining subject requirements by writing NCA tests rather than taking law school courses once you have the required common law exposure. The NCA’s list of subjects is as follows:
- Canadian Administrative Law (mandatory)
- Canadian Criminal Law (mandatory)
- Canadian Constitutional Law (mandatory)
- Canadian Professional Responsibility (mandatory)
- Foundations of Canadian Law (mandatory)
- Contracts
- Property
- Torts
Do have your courses approved by the NCA before registering for them. Read the website for the Assistance for NCA students page.
Legal research requirement
If your credentials are evaluated after January 1, 2022, you must also complete a legal research and writing course offered by an approved Canadian common law programme or the NCA legal research and writing module offered by the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education (CPLED).
You can receive exposure to common law topics by taking other common law subjects like Family Law, Commercial Law, or Remedies. However, before you are offered a Certificate of Qualification, you must prove competency in the eight subjects listed above. You must either complete an approved Canadian common law curriculum or take the NCA exam to complete the five essential Canadian subjects (only after you have successfully completed at least four law school courses).
Who can apply for NCA
All internationally trained legal graduates are eligible to apply, whether you are:
- A migrant to Canada with a law degree or;
- A Canadian citizen who received his or her legal education outside of Canada, or;
- A legal graduate considering coming to Canada.
- Civil law graduate from Canada
You can apply from anywhere in the world; the assessment procedure is unaffected by citizenship, nationality, or where you live.
How to apply for NCA
Complete the online assessment application form by selecting the Apply now option, Click here to apply now and make sure all the required papers for NCA are present with you.
The form will not be processed until the payment ($450.00 CDN + taxes) is received. The online form comes with a payment module. Payment must be made with a credit card.
Required documents
- You can either transmit your original or official pre-law university transcripts, or you can have your university provide the NCA official pre-law university transcripts to you (if applicable)
- Formal transcripts (detailed mark sheets) for your legal education from the school that gave them. Do not share original law school transcripts or degree certificates. NCA does not accept these original documents directly from applicants and will not be held liable if they are lost or destroyed while shipping.
- Attach an updated outline of your education and work experience (résumé or Curriculum vitae) with the application form.
- If you are a lawyer, get a letter or certificate of good standing from the bar association or bar council provided to you (This must outline the date you were called to the bar and your status as a member in good standing.)
Documents delivery via secure sharing services
If your law school is unable to transmit formal transcripts for your legal education by mail or courier, they may send them to [email protected] using a secure document sharing service. The NCA accepts documents through the following services
- Digitary CORE
- eScript-Safe
- ETranscript (Michigan State University)
- ETX-NG
- Grad Intel
- HEAR
- MyCreds (https://mycreds.ca/)
- My eQuals
- National Student Clearing House: Electronic Transcript Exchange
- OpenCerts™
- Parchment: Digital Credential Service
- PremierCert
- Transcripts Network by Credentials Solutions
Documents in languages other than English or French require translation.
If any of your documents are not in English or French, they must be sent to the NCA with an exact English or French translation completed by:
- a Canadian certified translator, or;
- a non-certified translator, or a translator recognised outside of Canada, along with an affidavit of the translator stating the translator’s qualifications and that the translation is of the original document.
Within ten business days of receiving your completed application form and payment, the NCA will send you an email with instructions on how to utilise the NCA portal. The NCA may also request further information or documentation from you.
The NCA takes roughly six to eight weeks to process your application and email you your assessment after they have all of the required papers.
NCA Mailing Address
Documents should be addressed to:
Federation of Law Societies of Canada
c/o National Committee on Accreditation
World Exchange Plaza
1810 – 45 O’Connor St.
Ottawa, ON
K1P 1A4
Process of NCA Assessment
- You send in your application together with the necessary papers and money.
- Your legal education and experience are evaluated by the NCA, which compares it to the National Requirement and its Policies.
- The NCA outlines the steps you must do to be eligible for law society bar admission (known as “assignments”). You may need to take NCA tests or take courses in a Canadian law school to complete your tasks. You have other options if you are dissatisfied with the assessment.
- Finish your assignments.
- By awarding you a Certificate of Qualification, the NCA certifies that you have met the requirements.
Certificate of Qualification
You can request a Certificate of Qualification as confirmation that you have completed your NCA tasks (either examinations or law school courses) once you have completed them.
To do so, go to your NCA portal and complete the following steps:
- Choose “Manage Yourself”
- Select “Request Certificate”
- Fill out the form completely.
- Click “Submit”
A Canadian law degree is not the same as a Certificate of Qualification. It demonstrates that you have completed the work required by the NCA. It also demonstrates that your understanding of Canadian law is comparable to that of someone who earned their law degree from a recognised Canadian law school programme.
Bar admission
You can apply to bar admission programmes in Canadian common law jurisdictions, which include all provinces and territories except Quebec, once you have received your NCA Certificate of Qualification.
The following are the law societies from which you can choose:
- Law Society of British Columbia (also see their FAQ: NCA Certificate of Qualification)
- Law Society of Alberta (also see their Internationally trained lawyers page)
- Law Society of Saskatchewan (also see their International applicants page)
- Law Society of Manitoba (Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education Program – CPLED – see also their page for internationally-trained applicants)
- Law Society of Ontario (also see their Career Map for Internationally Trained Lawyers)
- Law Society of New Brunswick (also see the Process for internationally educated lawyers)
- Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society
- Law Society of Prince Edward Island (also see their Foreign degrees/training page)
- Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador
- Law Society of Yukon
- Law Society of the Northwest Territories
- Law Society of Nunavut
Registration
You can sign up for NCA tests. You have your NCA assessment and you can meet your criteria by writing NCA examinations once exam registration is available.
If NCA has notified you that you must attend a Canadian law school programme to complete your NCA requirements, or if you have not yet received your NCA evaluation, you may not register for examinations.
The NCA offers twelve exam sessions per year, but not all subjects are available in each. For further information, see their schedule.
If you choose, you can write your tests out over multiple sessions. The deadline for completing your NCA assignments will be specified in your assessment report.
Fees
The NCA operates on a cost-recovery basis, which means it modifies fees when expenses vary. The registration price for each NCA exam will be $400 CDN plus relevant taxes as of June 7, 2021 (beginning with exams in August 2021). Read their refund policy.
You must register online using the NCA Portal and pay with a credit card in Canadian dollars. If you use a foreign credit card, you are responsible for any transaction costs as well as any exchange rate fluctuations.
Language
The Federation of Law Societies of Canada provides services in both official languages of Canada, therefore you can request that your tests be written in French. To do so, submit a written request to the Examinations Department by the deadline for exam registration.
Results
Exams are graded with a pass/fail system (i.e. 50 percent is considered a pass). Each session’s results are provided roughly 10 to 12 weeks after the final exam.
Final results are posted in the NCA Portal.
Exam structure
Exams given by the NCA are equivalent to those given by law schools in Canada. They are open-book and based on facts. You can obtain a better notion of the exam format and content by looking at previous law school exams. Previous tests are available in the libraries of several Canadian law schools.
An NCA exam might take up to 3.5 hours to complete. If you finish early, you must remain seated for the entire 3.5 hours, with your computer locked down.
To assist, the NCA offers practice exams for each subject, as well two guides Tips for Writing NCA Torts Exam and How to Answer Fact-based Law Exam Questions.
2022 Registration Deadlines
| Exam Session | Registration Opens | Registration and accommodations requests close at 23:00 ET |
| January | November 22, 2021 | December 17, 2021 |
| February | December 6, 2021 | January 5, 2022 |
| March | January 17, 2022 | February 11, 2022 |
| April | February 14, 2022 | March 11, 2022 |
| May | March 7, 2022 | April 1, 2022 |
| June | April 18, 2022 | May 13, 2022 |
| July | May 16, 2022 | June 10, 2022 |
| August | June 13, 2022 | July 8, 2022 |
| September | July 18, 2022 | August 12, 2022 |
| October | August 22, 2022 | September 16, 2022 |
| November | September 5, 2022 | September 30, 2022 |
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