THE PRESIDENT of the High Court has ruled that struck-off solicitors are still amenable to the profession’s disciplinary process.
Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns found the 1994 Solicitors Amendment Act brought in a “purposive interpretation” of the definition of a solicitor and the term “former solicitor” must be taken as including those who were on the roll of solicitors but are no longer.
He said he saw no reason to restrict the term “former solicitor” to one no longer practising but remaining on the roll of solicitors.
He was giving a ruling in proceedings by the Law Society to strike off Michael J Murphy, a solicitor formerly practising as MJ Murphy and Co, Lower Salthill, Galway, over an alleged “elaborate charade” in the misappropriation of client money.
The society had expressed concern that if Mr Murphy was struck off by the High Court, it might not be possible to force him to provide compensation for clients or make him amenable to any further disciplinary matters. Mr Justice Kearns had invited submissions from the society and Mr Murphy’s counsel over this issue.
The requirement for clarification of whether a struck-off solicitor is amenable to the jurisdiction of the disciplinary process was manifest, the judge said.
A struck-off solicitor can apply to be readmitted at a future date and it would be necessary for the society to have registered the appropriate number of sanctions or penalties which had been imposed on him or her, he said.
It was “scarcely in the public interest” a particular complaint could never be addressed in public because in the meantime a solicitor had been struck off, he added.
The judge took into account the Interpretation Act 2005 which provides the construing of many laws should reflect the “plain intention” of the parliament where that intention could be ascertained from the particular law.