THE SOLICITORS Disciplinary Tribunal has described as “totally unacceptable” the failure of prosecuting authorities to progress the three serious cases of professional misconduct referred by it and the president of the High Court to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The chairman of the tribunal that deals with complaints against solicitors and refers the serious ones to the High Court, Frank Daly, said the tribunal was “utterly frustrated” by the failure to bring the cases forward.
He said he did not know if the delay was within the office of the DPP or in the Garda Síochána. “Delays of over three years are totally unacceptable.” If the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigations was unable to deal with white-collar crime because of a lack of trained personnel, there were many solicitors, barristers and accountants seeking jobs who would adequately fill these positions.
Mr Daly said the tribunal had recommended that eight solicitors be struck off the Roll of Solicitors in 2008, which was confirmed by the High Court in all cases. It recommended that two be suspended from practice and that seven have their practising certificates limited.
The number of solicitors referred to the High Court for sanction was 31 in 2010, a reduction on the 2009 figure of 40. The number against whom a finding of misconduct was made by the tribunal, with a lesser sanction imposed, was 63, also a drop on the 2009 figure of 70.
The previous year, 2008, saw the highest number of complaints to the tribunal that were upheld, with a total of 115. Eighty of these resulted in sanctions being imposed by the tribunal itself, while 35 were referred to the High Court for more serious sanction.
There has been a steep rise in the number of complaints brought against solicitors to the tribunal since 2007, from 94 that year to almost twice that, 181, in 2010.
Most cases are brought by the Law Society itself, following an investigation by its investigating accountants, either on foot of a complaint or on its own initiative.
In 2010, 117 of the applications were brought by the Law Society, and 65 by lay complainants. Eighty-seven per cent of the complaints were upheld in 2010.
However, some solicitors had multiple complaints brought against them, and in 2010 there were 48 respondent solicitors facing the complaints. Some of these had several previous findings against them, with one solicitor having had a history of 10 adverse findings.
Among the most common complaints were those relating to conveyancing, with complaints also about failing to pay to beneficiaries of wills the amounts due in a timely manner, removing respondents from a judicial review appeal without their consent, breaches of the professional indemnity insurance obligation and irregularities in client accounts.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal is set up under the Solicitors Acts, consisting of 20 solicitors and 10 lay members, to hear complaints against solicitors. It has the power to impose sanctions for professional misconduct, but serious sanction, like striking a solicitor off the Roll of Solicitors, must be referred to the High Court.
The tribunal will be abolished under the proposed Legal Services Bill and replaced by a new independent complaints committee, which will have a lay majority.