Solicitors (Amendment) Act, 2002

Amendment of section 6 of Act of 1960.

8.—The Act of 1960 is hereby amended in section 6 (as substituted by section 16 of the Act of 1994)—

(a) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (1):

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

(a) not more than twenty 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 ten 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 for not more than one such period.”,

(b) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (1):

“(1A) At least 40 per cent of the solicitor members and of the lay members of the Disciplinary Tribunal, calculated by rounding to the nearest whole number, shall be men and at least 40 per cent, as so calculated, shall be women.”,

and

(c) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (6):

“(6) The Society shall pay to each member of the Disciplinary Tribunal, out of funds at the disposal of the Society, either—

(a) the reasonable travelling and subsistence expenses incurred by the member in connection with attendance at meetings of the Disciplinary Tribunal, or

(b) with the consent of the member concerned, an annual sum (the amount of which shall be determined by the Society from time to time and which shall be payable in arrear at the end of each year) in respect of those expenses.”.