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23 June 2023 / Jessica Clay , Lucinda Soon
Issue: 8030 / Categories: Features , Profession , Legal services , Regulatory , Mental health , Professional negligence
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Avoiding strike-off for dishonesty: the exception, not the norm

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When does dishonest conduct in the solicitors’ profession not lead to strike-off? Jessica Clay & Lucinda Soon consider some exceptional circumstances
  • Save in exceptional circumstances, a finding of dishonesty will lead to a solicitor being struck off the roll.
  • If exceptional circumstances are found, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal will however consider issuing a less severe sanction.
  • What amounts to exceptional circumstances will vary on a case-by-case basis, but will ultimately depend on the nature, scope and extent of the dishonesty.

Where a solicitor is found to have acted dishonestly, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) will invariably order that the solicitor is struck off from the roll (see for example Bolton v Law Society [1994] 2 All ER 486 and Salsbury v Law Society [2008] EWCA Civ 1285, [2008] All ER (D) 240 (Nov)).

However, this general rule is not always applied and, in some cases, the SDT has found allegations of dishonesty proved but has nonetheless reasoned that a

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