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Solicitors’ conduct at PO inquiry under scrutiny

The body that regulates solicitors in England and Wales says that it is working on more than 20 live investigations into solicitors and law firms in relation to the Post Office scandal. 

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has also said that it is looking at the conduct of solicitors in relation to their engagement and co-operation with a public inquiry into the issue. 

In one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history, hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted based on information from a faulty electronic-accounting system called Horizon. 

‘Unprecedented’ documentation 

In an update on its work, the SRA said that it was looking at “a wide range” of issues, including: 

• Solicitors' management and supervision of cases, and the strategy and conduct of prosecutions and of litigation,
• Duties relating to expert witnesses,
• Disclosure obligations and improper application of privilege to protect communications from disclosure, and
• Issues relating to the operation of the Post Office Complaint Review and Mediation Scheme – including overcharging of claimants, use of non-disclosure-agreements, and labelling of correspondence. 

It described the scale of the issues and documentation that it was dealing with as “unprecedented”. 

The SRA said that, now that the public inquiry had finished hearing evidence, it was liaising closely with it to collect all relevant evidence, and with the police to understand what, if any, action they might take. 

“We will, of course, take action as soon as we can, and while we can't confirm the exact timeline, we are hopeful that we can launch prosecution action in some cases in the summer of this year,” the body stated, confirming a timescale it had signalled last month. 

Engagement with inquiry 

It added that it would continue to engage with the inquiry to make sure that it was aware of any issues that might require more immediate action. 

“At the moment, we do not have evidence to show that any solicitor presents an ongoing risk to the public that needs to be addressed through urgent action,” it said. 

“Although the range of issues we are investigating is complex, the fundamentals are simple. The public expect solicitors to behave ethically,” SRA chief executive Paul Philip said. 

“We will act as swiftly as we can, but it is important that we get this right. We owe that to everyone impacted in this case and the wider public,” he concluded.