Solicitors

In the context of an appeal against a decision of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal to strike the appellant solicitor off the roll following findings of professional misconduct, it was established law that the tribunal was an expert body and its assessment of the appropriate penalty in any given case was entitled to considerable respect. The court should not interfere with the tribunal’s decision unless it had erred in law or the penalty it had imposed had been clearly inappropriate. In circumstances where the appellant claimed to have communicated to the tribunal that he could not attend the hearing and where the tribunal proceeded in his absence, the tribunal could not be criticised for so proceeding where the court could not be satisfied that any of the appellant’s correspondence had ever been sent.