The Law Society has called for the criminal standard of proof to be kept for solicitors facing disciplinary action, placing it at loggerheads with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
The SRA wants the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal, which is consulting on the issue, to switch to the civil standard. Responding to the consultation this week, the Law Society pointed out the high prosecution success rate at the tribunal—98% in 2015-16, showing the criminal test does not stop cases being brought. Law Society president Christina Blacklaws said there was ‘an inequality of arms’ between solicitors and the ‘well-resourced’ SRA so the SRA should have to meet the highest standard of proof.
Blacklaws said the civil test was ‘too low a standard for bringing a case where conviction ends the professional career of a respondent’.
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