The Legal Practice Council (LPC) has announced the final transitional arrangements for the conclusion of the current four-paper Competency-Based Assessment (CBA) system and the commencement of the new five-paper assessment system.
In a notice issued on 26 August 2026, the LPC confirmed that 2027 will be the final year in which candidate legal practitioners can complete their CBA under the existing four-paper assessment system.
The notice follows previous communications issued by the LPC on 11 December 2025 and 17 March 2026 concerning the implementation of the five-paper CBA and the transitional arrangements for phasing out the existing system.
Under the final arrangements, the August 2027 examination sitting will be the last opportunity to write the four-paper CBA. The LPC has further confirmed that there will be no four-paper CBA sitting after August 2027.
The transition forms part of the implementation of a new syllabus incorporating 15 compulsory modules prescribed by regulation 6(10) of the Regulations made under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014.
The first assessment under the new syllabus is scheduled to take place in March 2028.
According to the LPC, the commencement of the new assessment regime was postponed to provide the Council with an opportunity to consult relevant stakeholders, avoid the administration of two assessment regimes concurrently and give candidates who have outstanding papers a final opportunity to complete their CBA under the existing syllabus.
The transitional arrangements therefore establish a clear cut-off point for candidates currently progressing through the four-paper system.
Candidates who still need to complete outstanding papers under the existing system will need to take the timing of the remaining examination sittings into account, with August 2027 serving as the final four-paper sitting.
From March 2028, candidates will instead be assessed under the new five-paper CBA based on the revised syllabus.
For candidates currently completing their competency-based assessments, the announcement makes the next year particularly significant, as the August 2027 sitting will represent the final opportunity to conclude the CBA under the existing four-paper framework.
