Solicitors (Amendment) Act, 1994

Disciplinary Tribunal (section 6 of Act of 1960).

16.—(1) The Act of 1960 is hereby amended by the substitution of the following section for section 6:

Disciplinary Tribunal.

6.—(1) The President of the High Court shall, from time to time as the occasion requires, appoint a tribunal (to be known and in this Act referred to as ‘the Disciplinary Tribunal’) consisting of—

(a) not more than ten persons from among practising solicitors of not less than 10 years standing (to be known and referred to in this section as ‘solicitor members’), one of whom shall be appointed by the President of the High Court to be chairperson of the Disciplinary Tribunal and each of whom shall be appointed after consultation with the Society, and

(b) not more than five persons, who are not solicitors or barristers (to be known and referred to in this section as ‘lay members’), who shall be nominated by the Minister to represent the interests of the general public,

for such a period, not exceeding five years, as the President of the High Court may determine, and any such person so appointed shall be eligible for reappointment to the Disciplinary Tribunal.

(2) A member of the Disciplinary Tribunal may resign his membership by letter sent by registered post to the President of the High Court and his resignation shall take effect on the date on which the letter is delivered.

(3) (a) The President of the High Court may remove a member of the Disciplinary Tribunal, may fill a vacancy therein and, subject to the limits stated in subsection (1) of this section, may increase or reduce the number of persons thereon.

(b) The President of the High Court may not remove a lay member of the Disciplinary Tribunal, without prior consultation with the Minister.

(4) The Society shall defray any reasonable costs and expenses incurred by the Disciplinary Tribunal.

(5) For the purpose of hearing and determining any application under section 7 (as substituted by the Solicitors (Amendment) Act, 1994) of this Act, the Disciplinary Tribunal shall sit in divisions, each of which shall comprise three members of whom one shall be a lay member and two shall be solicitor members.

(6) There shall be paid to the members of the Disciplinary Tribunal, out of funds at the disposal of the Society, reasonable travelling and subsistence expenses incurred by them in connection with their attendance at meetings of the Disciplinary Tribunal.

(7) Any information, document or thing obtained by any member of the Disciplinary Tribunal as a result of any application to the Disciplinary Tribunal, or in the course of any inquiry by that Tribunal, shall not be disclosed except for the purposes of the Solicitors Acts, 1954 to 1994.”.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to any application under section 7 of the Act of 1960 made before the coming into operation of this section to the Disciplinary Committee appointed under section 6 of the Act of 1960.