Solicitors Act 1932
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1932 c. 37 |
Solicitors Act, 1932
(22 & 23 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 37.
An Act to consolidate the Solicitors Acts, 1839 to 1928, and other enactments relating to solicitors of the Supreme Court.
[12th July 1932]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
The Roll of Solicitors.
Custody of the Role.
1 The Law Society to act as registrar of solicitors.
(1) The Law Society shall, subject as hereinafter provided, perform the duties imposed by this Act on the registrar of solicitors:
Provided that the Master of the Rolls, with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice, or (in case of difference) of one of them, may by order under their hands appoint any fit person, and thereafter from time to time appoint another fit person, or re-appoint the Society, to perform the said duties during pleasure.
(2) In this Act the expression ‘the registrar’ means, as the case may be, either the Law Society or the person appointed for the time being to perform the said duties.
2 The registrar to keep the roll of solicitors.
(1) The registrar shall keep, in accordance with the provisions of this Act and of any regulations made thereunder, an alphabetical list (in this Act referred to as ‘the roll’) of all solicitors of the Supreme Court in this Act referred to as ‘solicitors’).
(2) The registrar shall have the custody of the roll and of all documents relating thereto, and shall allow any person to inspect the roll during office hours without payment.
Admission and enrolment.
3 Admission and enrolment of solicitors.
(1) Any person who has obtained from the society a certificate of having passed the final examination provided for by this Act may apply to the Master of the Rolls to be admitted as a solicitor; and thereupon the Master of the Rolls, unless cause to the contrary is shown to his satisfaction, shall by writing under his hand and in such manner and form as he may from time to time think fit admit that person to be a solicitor.
(2) The registrar, upon production of an admission signed by the Master of the Rolls, and on payment to the Law Society of a fee not exceeding five pounds, shall enter on the roll the name of the person admitted.
Removal from the Roll and suspension from practice.
4 Constitution of Disciplinary Committee.
4. The Master of the Rolls shall appoint from among members of the Council of the Law Society and such former members of the Council as are practising as solicitors in England a disciplinary committee (in this Part of this Act referred to as ‘the Committee’) consisting of such number of persons, not being less than three nor more than seven, as he may from time to time think fit, and may from time to time remove any member from the Committee and fill any vacancy therein and, subject to such limit as aforesaid, increase the number of the Committee.
5 Powers of Committee.
(1) Any application—
(a ) by a solicitor to procure his name to be removed from the roll;
(b ) by another person to strike the name of a solicitor off the roll, or to require a solicitor to answer allegations contained in an affidavit,
shall be made to and heard by the Committee in accordance with rules made under the next succeeding section:
Provided that nothing in this section shall affect the jurisdiction which, apart from the provisions of this section, is exercisable by the Master of the Rolls or any judge of the High Court over solicitors.
(2) On the hearing of any such application the Committee shall have power to make any such order as to removing from or striking off the roll the name of the solicitor to whom the application relates, as to suspending him from practice, as to the payment by any party of costs, and otherwise in relation to the case as they may think fit:
Provided that upon proof of the commission of an offence with respect to which express provision is made by any section of this Act, the Committee shall, without prejudice to their power of making an order as to costs, impose the punishment, or one of the punishments, specified in that section.
6 Procedure of Committee.
(1) The Committee, with the concurrence of the Master of the Rolls, may from time to time make rules for regulating the making, hearing and determining of applications to the Committee under this Part of this Act:
Provided that no such application shall be heard before less than three members of the Committee.
(2) For the purposes of any application made to them under this Part of this Act, the Committee may administer oaths and the applicant and the solicitor to whom the application relates may sue out writs of subpoena ad testificandum and duces tecum, but no person shall be compelled under any such writ to produce any document which he could not be compelled to produce on the trial of an action.
7 Filing, effect and notice of orders made by the Committee.
(1) Every order made by the Committee under this Part of this Act shall be prefaced by a statement of their findings in relation to the facts of the case and shall be signed by their Chairman and filed with the registrar, and as soon as it has been so filed shall be acted upon by the registrar and be enforceable in the same manner as a judgment or order of the High Court to the like effect.
(2) Where by any such order as aforesaid the name of any solicitor is ordered to be removed from, or struck off, the roll, or any solicitor is suspended from practice, the registrar shall forthwith upon the filing of the order cause a notice stating the effect of the operative part thereof to be published in the London Gazette.
(3) The file of orders made by the Committee under this Part of this Act may be inspected by any person during office hours without payment.
8 Appeal against orders of Committee.
8. An appeal against any order made by the Committee under this Part of this Act shall lie to the High Court at the instance either of the applicant or of the solicitor to whom the application relates, and every such appeal shall be made within such time and in such form and shall be heard in such manner as may be prescribed by rules made from time to time by the Master of the Rolls with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice or (in case of difference) of one of them.
9 Procedure upon applications to the High Court.
9. The following provisions of this section shall have effect in relation to any application made to the High Court by another person to strike the name of a solicitor off the roll, or to require a solicitor to answer allegations contained in an affidavit:—
(i) the applicant shall serve upon the registrar fourteen clear days' notice of his intention to make the application together with copies of all affidavits intended to be used in support of the application, and the Court shall not entertain any such application except upon production of an affidavit proving compliance with the requirements of this paragraph;
(iii) the Court may order the costs of the registrar of or relating to and of the matters aforesaid to be paid by the solicitor against whom, or by the person by whom, the application was made, or was intended to be made, or partly by one and partly by the other of them.
10 Power of registrar to draw up orders.
10. Where an order (whethernisi or absolute) has been made by the High Court upon a motion to remove from, or strike off, the roll the name of a solicitor, or to require a solicitor to answer allegations contained in an affidavit, and has not been drawn up by the applicant within one week after it was made, the registrar may cause the order to be drawn up, and all future proceedings thereon shall be taken as if the motion had been made by the registrar.
11 Orders of High Court to be produced to registrar.
11. Where the name of any solicitor is ordered by the High Court to be removed from, or struck off, the roll, the order shall forthwith and before it is acted upon be produced to the registrar, and the registrar shall enter a note thereof on the roll in connection with the name of the solicitor and shall remove or strike of the name and shall mark the order as having been entered.
12 Limitation of time for certain applications tostrike names off the roll.
12. Subject as hereinafter provided, no solicitor shall be liable to have his name struck off the roll on account of any defect in his articles of clerkship, or in the registration thereof, or in his service...
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