Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

The Law Society is required by section 7 of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1960 to bring the report of the solicitors' disciplinary tribunal to the High Court in cases where the tribunal has found that there has been misconduct and where the tribunal leaves the question of the sanction to be imposed to be decided by the High Court. Typically this occurs in the more serious cases of misconduct where the question of the solicitor's fitness to continue to practise arises. The amendments clarify that the Law Society is entitled, on bringing a report of the disciplinary tribunal to the High Court in a finding of misconduct against a solicitor — amendment No. 10 — or against an apprentice solicitor as provided for in amendment No. 17, to make submissions to the court on any sanction the court may impose.

The right of the Law Society to address the High Court in such matters is not expressly provided for in the Solicitors Acts, although this has been the practice for many years and is regulated in court rules — Rule 8 of SI 701 of 2004, Rules of the Superior Courts (Solicitors (Amendment) Act 2002). Rule 8 provides that the Law Society may seek such order for sanction as it deems appropriate and reasonable having regard to the findings and recommendations of the disciplinary tribunal.

Recently the High Court considered, as a preliminary point, the right of the Law Society to address the court on the sanction to be imposed in a particular case. The judgment cast doubt on the society's practice of addressing the court on the sanction to be imposed in the absence of an enabling provision, although the court decided that Rule 8 should be applied to the case before it. The purpose of the proposed amendments is to make such an enabling provision and to remove any possible future doubt.

Amendment No. 29 adds the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 2002 to the Long Title of the Bill, consequent on amendments Nos. 17 and 18.