Solicitor

It was settled law that the solicitor’s disciplinary tribunal comprised an expert and informed tribunal, which was particularly well placed, in any case, to assess what measures were required to deal with defaulting solicitors and to protect the public interest. Absent any error of law, the High Court had to pay considerable respect to the sentencing decisions of the tribunal. Further, an appellate court should not interfere with the trial judge’s conclusion on proportionality in such a case, unless it decided that the conclusion had been wrong. A decision would not be wrong simply because the appeal court might, had it been sitting at first instance, have awarded a different sentence. There would be a number of cases where an appellate court might think that there was no right answer, in the sense that reasonable judges could differ in their conclusions. In such cases, any appeal had to be dismissed.