England: Severe fines serve as warning to loose lipped solicitors

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has said even comments made in a personal capacity could be classified as misconduct if the poster can be identified as a practitioner.

In a recent case, three solicitors were fined £14,000 after exchanging offensive email about a co-worker while another was fined £15,000 for using “despicable” language in an email to a client.

One criminal defence solicitor, Majid Mahmood, from Luton, lamented on Facebook the fact that a plane carrying Jewish refugees had not blown up.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said of this case: “Causing offence to the public to the detriment of the collective reputation of the profession was unacceptable.

“The intemperate language used, the hatred manifested, including against Zionists as well as Jewish people, and wishing them dead by graphic means were terrible ideas for a solicitor to be promoting.”

Paul Philip, chief executive of the SRA, said: “We expect solicitors to act at all times with integrity, including on social media and when commenting in what may seem to be a personal capacity.

“Public confidence in the profession is undermined by offensive or inappropriate communication and the misuse of social media can be a real problem.

“But this is also about communication within an office or to clients. Solicitors cannot justify their conduct by saying that the communication was private, or they did not intend to cause offence, or that recipients were not offended.

“There is a risk that if you send an email which has the potential to cause offence and that email subsequently comes to light, we might take action.”