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SRA laying groundwork for Post Office action

The chair of the body that regulates the solicitors’ profession in England and Wales has said that it is ready to begin prosecutions arising from the Post Office scandal as soon as the public-inquiry report is published.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is investigating more than 20 firms and solicitors in relation to their involvement in one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history, according to the Law Society Gazette of England and Wales.

It is understood that the investigation includes solicitors involved at all stages of the scandal, from the initial prosecutions to the response as the issue came to light and ultimately became the subject of litigation.

'Unprecedented’

SRA chair Anna Bradley said that the regulator’s board discussed the ongoing cases at its meeting earlier this month, hearing that the scale of the issues and documents being dealt with was unprecedented.

Bradley added: “Now that the public inquiry has finished hearing evidence, we are liaising closely with the inquiry to collect all the relevant evidence and with the police to understand what, if any action they may 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,” she stated.

More than a dozen solicitors gave evidence to the inquiry, which had its closing submissions in December. Any regulatory action would follow the publication of chair Sir Wyn Williams’ report and would be affected by any proceedings.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said last year that it was preparing to receive referrals from the SRA this year ahead of a potential spike in workloads.

Duties

The Gazette says that the issue of disciplinary action has been a recurring talking point since solicitors started appearing before the tribunal and evidence was heard about their role advising the Post Office, both in-house and externally.

The SRA insisted that it should wait until after the inquiry report was published, but in the meantime established its own team to start laying the groundwork for future action.

The regulator is looking at solicitors’ management and supervision of cases, and the strategy and conduct of prosecutions and of litigation.

Of particular interest, according to the Gazette, is whether solicitors fulfilled their duties on expert-witness instruction, disclosure, and labelling of correspondence.