Solicitor fined for drink-driving granted anonymity

A solicitor fined by the tribunal after being convicted of drink-driving has been granted anonymity on human rights grounds.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and respondent AG, who was admitted as a solicitor in 1994, applied for the judgment of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal to be anonymised on the basis that publication would cause AG ‘exceptional hardship and exceptional prejudice’. It was submitted that identifying her would ‘pose a real risk to her life’, and contravene her Article 2 (right to life) and Article 8 (right to private and family life) rights. Medical evidence supported that contention.

The tribunal agreed that an unanonymised judgment of an agreed outcome would ‘significantly violate’ those rights. Therefore a 'departure from the usual principles of open justice was necessary'.

AG was convicted of drink-driving in September 2020 and disqualified from driving for 26 months. The proportion of alcohol in her blood of 113 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood exceeded the prescribed limit. Her mitigation, including that she co-operated with the police and that her unnamed condition (and associated symptoms) was directly responsible for the offence, was not agreed by the SRA.

AG was fined £1,000 by the tribunal and ordered to pay £2,392 costs. She is no longer practising but remains on the roll.