Dr. Brian Doherty:

Misconduct is defined in section 50 of the Act under. It is quite a broad definition. It covers fraud or dishonesty where the provision of legal services is considered to be inadequate to a substantial degree. This is outside the provision of legal services. Therefore, if there is an act or omission or otherwise in connection with the provision of legal services - outside of work, as it were - that would justify the fining of a legal practitioner as not a fit or proper person to engage in the provision of such services. There are a couple of offences under the Act which, if committed, would constitute misconduct. These include breaches of the Solicitors Acts, offences under the Solicitors Acts or bringing the profession into disrepute, which is a broad catch-all that is applied in respect of both barristers and solicitors. That conduct could go from being excessively rude all the way up to any sort of behaviour that could be seen as being unworthy of a legal professional.

There is a part of the definition that relates to multidisciplinary practices, which, as stated earlier, are not in play, so it has not been applied yet. Offences under section 50 also include the commission of an arrestable offence, committing a crime or an offence inside or outside the State or seeking an amount of costs that would be considered to be grossly excessive. I mentioned that we deal with consumer complaints in respect of inadequate services and excessive costs where the amount of costs could be considered to be grossly excessive. That might be considered to be misconduct and a breach of the Act and any regulations made under it. There is a singular definition relating to a client being in custody and services being withdrawn without the permission of a court. The latter has not happened since the LSRA came into existence. There have been no allegations in relation to that.