Complaints against solicitors on the increase

FINDINGS OF misconduct against solicitors more than doubled from 2007 to 2008, according to the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal report released yesterday.

And the number of referrals to the High Court tripled.

In his annual report for 2008, chairman Francis Daly said the nature of the complaints being made and the challenging impact they were having on the integrity of the solicitors’ profession and the confidence of the public was disquieting.

The Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal is a statutory body comprised of 20 solicitors and 10 lay members. It receives complaints about the conduct of solicitors from the Law Society of Ireland or from members of the public.

In 2008, the tribunal found 80 cases of misconduct against 53 solicitors, compared to 35 in 2007.

The number of applications received was 121, the highest in the last six years and up from 94 in 2007. Some 99 cases were completed and in 81 per cent of these there was a finding of misconduct.

In 45 of the 80 misconduct findings, the solicitors admitted the allegations.

If a finding of misconduct is considered serious enough it is referred to the High Court. Referrals to the High Court increased from 10 in 2007 to 35 in 2008. The report said in three cases referred the tribunal recommended each respondent pay €1 million to the Law Society Compensation Fund.

Two of these involved the same solicitor who had been accused of deliberate fraud, the giving of treble undertakings on the same properties and other matters. The tribunal had also recommended he be struck off the Roll of Solicitors.

Fraudulent and dishonest behaviour were the predominant features of a number of the cases in 2008, the chairman said.

“The gravity of such matters was of particular concern, not only to the tribunal, but also to the profession and the public at large,” he said.

He said there had been a substantial increase in the number of cases involving breach of undertakings, however, the fact that the system had been “abused so gravely” did not mean it was defective as a whole.

“The vast majority of solicitors honour undertakings and recognise that an undertaking is one of the core foundation stones of the profession,” Mr Daly said.

Some 31 per cent of the cases heard were for financial irregularities, including one case in which the solicitor used almost €25,000 of a client’s money to pay personal and office expenses. In another case, the solicitor provided a Deed of Transfer which he said was stamped by the Revenue Commissioners, but which was not, so that he could keep the stamp duty owed on a property sale.

Speaking on the increase in cases coming before the tribunal, Mr Daly said it was not just the increase in the number of new applications that was disquieting, “but rather the nature of the complaints being made and the challenging impact they are having on the integrity of the solicitors’ profession and the confidence of the public in regard to the regulation of the profession”.