Professional Ethics

[Jaggy Bunnet]

Full story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3629329.stm

Summary:

Witness comes forward with info on gangland murder suspect on condition of anonimity.

Police pass his details to suspects solicitor.

CS gas attack, knife attack, petrol bombs etc.

Witness moved and given new identity and compensation from police.


Clearly the police screwed up and have apologised and paid compensation.

What is the position of the solicitor? Do they have any duty of care? Should they have realised the consequences of passing this information on to their client? Are they liable? Have they broken any professional guidelines?

 

[Jon_in_london]

Of course not, they are lawyers and they make the law to benefit themselves. They arent really going to make a cane for their own arses are they?

 

[BillyTK]

From my flimsy legal knowledge (gleaned from Crown Court, This Life and Judge John Jules ) a solicitor has a duty of care to their client and their client only, and as such are duty-bound to share information like this with their clients. So it's the police and the police only who are culpable for behaving so irresponsibly.

 

[IllegalArgument]

Err the client. The laywer passed the info, but the client was the one to act on it.

 

[Iconoclast]

It's da witness's fault, he shoulda kept his damn mouth shut.