Solicitor suspended for failures to act or communicate
A solicitor has been suspended from practice for repeatedly failing to respond to correspondence and legal notices, and failures to settle invoices or to implement a decision of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.
Former sole practitioner Roy Miller, of Glasgow, was given a three year suspension by the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal, which found him guilty of professional misconduct in respect that (1) he failed or delayed to respond to correspondence and statutory notices issued by both the SLCC and the Law Society of Scotland; (2) he failed or delayed to respond to a formal determination of the SLCC and failed to implement its terms; (3) he delayed in settling five invoices issued by expert witnesses instructed by him, despite having received reimbursement of at least four of these from the Scottish Legal Aid Board; and (4) he failed or delayed to implement the terms of a mandate received from another firm of solicitors and to respond to their correspondence.
The tribunal said that the conduct, which took place over a period of more than two years, "represented a catalogue of a failure to respond" by Mr Miller. It had made it clear on many occasions that public trust in the profession depended on the regulatory bodies being in a position to appropriately investigate any complaints. That required solicitors to cooperate when any complaint arose. Mr Miller had previously had a restriction placed on his practising certificate, as a way of protecting the public interest, and given the scale of the conduct in this case and the fact that the behaviour had continued as described, this had to be marked by a suspension from practice.