SLCC calls for lower standard of proof in misconduct proceedings
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The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) has said in response to the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal’s recent consultation on the standard of proof to be applied in misconduct proceedings that it should lower the standard of proof to the civil standard.
The SLCC takes the view that the SSDT should fall in line with the legal profession in England and Wales, as well as health, social and financial regulators in the UK and Scotland.
It described the standard of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ as “anachronistic in risk-based professional regulation”.
The SLCC considers that a change would reassure the public and the profession that a modern, proportionate and logical approach is being taken to the discipline of Scottish solicitors.
The change, it claims, would also assist in removing another layer of complexity in an already complicated process, where it is possible for a single complaint to be subjected to multiple threshold tests and standards of proof by the various regulators involved.
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