The Panel approved 38 declarations, rejected 11 applications for membership or reinstatement, 2 members were reprimanded, and 4 cases are outstanding where more information has been requested by the panel. 3 members were referred to the Disciplinary Tribunal.
Some applications were approved subject to the provision of additional information in order to allow students to undertake their exams without delay. It should be noted that exam results are withheld unless the information is provided.
Where a member of CILEx makes a declaration that they have been subject to an order made under Section 43 of the Solicitors Act 1974, the Professional Conduct Panel will consider not only the fact of the order being made, but also the underlying reasons for it. These cases are therefore considered not only as prior conduct declarations, but also as allegations of misconduct. They may be dealt with under delegated decision procedures. Such cases are therefore included in the figures at sections 2.1 and 2.2 above.
Of the declarations considered by the Panel 25 were made by applicants wishing to enrol or reinstate as members of CILEx, 5 by Fellows, 5 by Graduate Members and 23 by other members of CILEx. The Panel also considered 3 request for a preliminary decision from individuals considering membership of CILEx prior to the making of a formal application.
3 DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL
The Disciplinary Tribunal is responsible for considering cases referred to it by the Professional Conduct Panel or the Appeals Panel where cases are referred back to it.
The Tribunal sits as a panel of three, with a majority of lay members. One member will be a Fellow of CILEx. No Tribunal member may be a member of CILEx Council or the IPS Board.
Where it finds one or more charges proved, the Panel may: • take no further action; • reprimand or warn the member; • impose conditions on a member in respect of their conduct or employment;
• order the member to pay a fine; • exclude the member from membership of CILEx for a fixed or indefinite period.
During 2012 the Tribunal heard charges brought against 13 members of CILEx.
In 2013 the Tribunal heard charges brought against 20 members of CILEx. Some of these cases will have been referred to the DT from the PCP in 2012. 2 of these cases involved 3 allegations made by 3 different clients.
3 cases involved examination misconduct; 1 related to a failure to declare prior conduct and 6 others concerned prior conduct and related matters; 2 arose as a result of complaints from third parties and 8 from a complaint by a client.
The Tribunal found the charges proved in 19 cases, and did not find the
charges proven in 1 case, although in 2 cases 3 charges were found not proved and in 1 case found 1 principal of the charge not proved. 8 members were excluded for periods ranging from 6 months to indefinite. 4 members were fined, 6 members were reprimanded and 1 received a formal warning. In all cases where IPS applied for costs, members were ordered to pay those costs. No orders for costs were made against IPS.
These outcomes are expressed in percentage terms in the chart below. Outcomes of cases referred to Tribunal
0% 5% 5% 20% 0% 30%
Exclusion Reprimand or warning Conditions Fine Warning No further action Withdrawn / no evidence Not Proven
The following graph demonstrates the number of cases heard by the Tribunal each year since 2007.
25 20 15 10 5 0
2007 3.1 Timescales
An analysis was undertaken of the time taken to consider cases referred to the Tribunal. The table below sets out the time taken to deal with allegations of misconduct, measured from the date of referral to the Tribunal by the Professional Conduct Panel, to determination of the case.
IPS key performance indicators set a target of 65% of cases being disposed of within 6 months, and 100% in 9 months. The information below shows that IPS has not met some of these targets, due to the nature of the issues involved in cases where there is delay. However there has been a marked improvement with regard to completing cases within 9 months where this target has been met.
2008 2009 2010 2011 Number of cases 40%
2012
2013
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Professional standards for specialist lawyers
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