Conduct and service

To tell or not to tell?Occasionally complaints referred to the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors raise fundamental issues relating to principles of the rules of conduct.Such an issue was recently considered by the adjudication panel following a complaint made on behalf of the police.

It involved issues relating to a solicitor's duty of confidentiality and the duty not to facilitate the commission of a crime.The solicitor's client had been arrested on suspicion of having committed serious offences.

He was questioned over two days at the police station and was then released on bail, to attend the station again at a stated time a week later.Before the client was scheduled to return to the station, the solicitor received a letter from him saying he would not be answering his bail and had decided to abscond.

Although the letter indicated that a copy had been sent to the police, they denied receiving it.In the event, the solicitor turned up at the station when the client should have surrendered, but the client did not.

The solicitor then disclosed to the investigating officers the letter he had received.The police made four allegations against the solicitor.

Firstly, that he knew of his client's intention to abscond and not to surrender to his bail; secondly, that by failing to report the matter when he received the information, he had assisted the client to breach his bail; thirdly, that he had been used to facilitate a crime, and fourthly, that he should have informed the police of his client's intentions when he received the letter.The solicitor argued there was no breach of bail conditions until the client actually failed to surrender - after all, his client could have changed his mind - and that as the client had made it clear he had no objection to his letter being produced to the police, he did so when he did not surrender.The complaint raised issues of the duty of confidentiality and particularly note 1 to principle 16.02.

Did the solicitor compromise the good repute of the profession and/or his duty to the court, or was he fulfilling his duty to his client?The panel decided that, under the circumstances, there was no duty on the solicitor to disclose the letter to the police.

He was not being used to facilitate a crime or a fraud and, accordingly, his duty of confidentiality to his client was unaffected and took precedence over other considerations.l Every case before the adjudication panel is decided on its facts.

These case studies are for illustration only and are not precedents.