You reported a decision of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in which an elderly solicitor (in his mid 70s at least) was reprimanded for acting without a practising certificate (see [2005] Gazette, 22 September, 36).

He had apparently dealt with a single conveyancing transaction for a vendor in August 2002 until the matter became abortive.


My reading of the report suggests that the tribunal dealt with the case sympathetically; my question is whether the application should have been made in the first place. Surely in a case like this where there was no obvious risk to the public, a little common humanity could have been applied. To do so would have saved the costs of the application and spared the solicitor a great deal of unnecessary distress.


John Alcock, Davis Blank Furniss, Manchester