Social media: Majority of complaints have not led to investigations
The number of reports to the Bar Standards Board (BSB) about barristers’ use of social media has unexpectedly fallen but an increasing proportion relate to “controversial social and political issues”.
There have also been fewer complaints about sexual harassment/misconduct, while referrals received from the government about immigration barristers have not led to action.
The regulator has recorded a sharp rise in the number of pupillages as well.
The review of the BSB’s regulatory decision making – for the year to 31 March 2024 – went before last week’s meeting of the BSB main board and recorded “significant increases in our productivity, timeliness and responsiveness in most areas of our work”.
“The most important criterion for judging our performance remains of course the quality of our decision-making and this remains high, as confirmed by the reports from the Independent Reviewers.”
Of 32 cases referred to the reviewers by dissatisfied parties, only one led to a reconsideration.
Family law continues to be the area of law where the BSB receives the highest number of reports (152, up from 109 the previous year), followed by criminal law (111, up from 106). An increasing number of all reports (15%) came from litigants in person.
Last year’s review anticipated more reports about barristers’ social media activity but in fact they fell from 115 involving 53 barristers to 88 involving 35 barristers, although a higher proportion related to controversial social and political issues.
The report said: “Considerations of freedom of expression and barristers’ private lives have meant that the majority have not been progressed to investigation.”
These were part of 240 reports assessed – 13% of all reports – which related to ‘non-professional life’.
There were only seven new reports of sexual harassment/misconduct, compared to 16 the previous year, and mainly related to conduct within the profession rather than involving members of the public.
The BSB began an outreach programme with the profession earlier this year to encourage reporting – by next March, there should have been events in all six circuits.
In 2023/24, 23 referrals were made by the Home Office about the conduct of barristers appearing in immigration tribunals.
“This reflected increased focus in 2023 by the previous government on the small minority of lawyers who they alleged are helping migrants exploit the immigration system,” the BSB explained.
“Although [the supervision team] did follow up some concerns with the respective chambers or barristers, most of the Home Office reports contained very limited information and lacked evidence of misconduct, which meant that most reports could not be actioned.
“However, this was a transitionary period at the Home Office, which was in the process of establishing a new ‘professional enabler’ team, to enable more effective referrals to be made to regulators when there is evidence-based suspicion of abuse of the immigration tribunals.”
The BSB has met with this team to share information, including the type of evidence the BSB needs.
In April 2024, the BSB signed a data-sharing agreement with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner to support data sharing “and we have taken joint action where appropriate” – we reported in August about a barrister being disbarred as a result of this.
There were 614 new pupils during the year, compared to 535 in 2022/23, 539 in 2021/22 and a Covid-affected 416 in 2020/21.
There was a small rise in reports about pupillage to 21, with a common theme being the need to make appropriate reasonable adjustments.
There are 272 pupillage providers and around 40 more going through the process of being approved.
The majority are chambers, of course, but “there has been some interest from solicitors’ firms, local As at 31 March, there were 147 BSB-authorised entities, an increase of 18, including 14 alternative business structures.
Of the 39 cases heard at Bar disciplinary tribunal, 33 were found proved, leading to 10 disbarments and nine suspensions.
The BSB is now implementing the recommendations of the end-to-end review of its enforcement policies and processes carried out by City law firm Fieldfisher, which the review said would “further improve our performance in that area”.
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