The High Court has dismissed an appeal against a disciplinary tribunal’s finding that a solicitor had not committed professional misconduct.
The appeal was brought by Dermot Tighe against the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s decision of 9 April 2009 concerning respondent solicitor Joseph Burke. The tribunal had found no misconduct in relation to the matters complained of.
Kearns P. said the tribunal had given full consideration to Tighe’s complaints, reviewing extensive documentary evidence and hearing oral evidence from the main protagonists over several days in February and March 2009. The tribunal distinguished the burden of proof for professional misconduct from that applicable to negligence. It concluded the allegations fell short of the threshold for misconduct and made no determination about any civil liability for negligence.
Negligence had been addressed separately in plenary proceedings in the High Court. In a judgment delivered on 16 July 2010, Kearns P. dismissed Tighe’s claim, concluding that his complaints did not establish negligence. The judge said that conclusion determined the appeal against the tribunal’s no-misconduct finding, because a higher standard of proof applied to misconduct.
The complaints arose from the same facts and circumstances. The court therefore dismissed the appeal. The judgment did not make a separate finding on civil negligence in this appeal.