Should the SRA be allowed to police the private lives of the individuals it regulates? Mickaela Fox & Russell Behn share their reservations
Last summer, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) launched one of its largest ever public consultations—A Question of Trust—which is aimed at “giving everybody the chance to have their say about action taken against those solicitors who fall short of the expected standard”.
Ultimately, its objective is to improve compliance and the feedback will form part of the development of a future SRA reference framework, aimed at improving clarity, consistency and proportionality in decision making.
The framework itself has already come in for criticism from various sources including the Law Society which has expressed concern about attempting to “categorise all misconduct at the expense of consideration of individual circumstances”.
The consultation closed on 31 January 2016, with over 2,000 online responses and 3,000 event attendees. It will be reporting on the outcomes in early summer. Among other things, lawyers and the public were invited to share their views on whether or not the SRA should include events that occur in an individual’s private
