The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has announced that solicitors are likely to follow barristers in adopting a lower, civil, standard of proof for professional misconduct hearings.
The SDT will apply to the Legal Services Board in the next few weeks for permission to apply the ‘balance of probabilities’ rather than the criminal ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ test to its cases.
It consulted last year on the appropriate standard of proof to apply, receiving 28 responses. Edward Nally, chair of the SDT, said: ‘After careful scrutiny and consideration the Tribunal is proposing to move to the civil standard of proof as and when these new rules are enacted.
‘For those who believe that this move will result in “easier” prosecutions of alleged misconduct breaches I respectfully reject that proposition. The Tribunal will continue to scrutinise robustly all allegation brought before it, and will continue to look for and identify cogent and compelling evidence before finding allegations proved.’
If approved, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons will be the only professional regulator still applying the criminal standard after the Bar Standards Board switched to the civil standard last week for barristers accused of breaching the Bar’s code of conduct.
However, the Law Society expressed disappointment at the SDT’s decision. President Christina Blacklaws said: ‘The high success rate for prosecutions at the SDT (98% in 2015–16) shows the Solicitors Regulation Authority has been perfectly able to bring cases meeting the criminal standard of proof.’
Blacklaws said the society reflected its members’ views and case law in support of retaining the criminal standard in its response to the SDT consultation: ‘There is an inequality of arms between an individual solicitor and the well-resourced regulatory body.’
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