Three immgration solictors responsible for "grave failure to disclose" named in High Court judgment, as Sir John Thomas warns any repeat in future will face SRA action
Following on from the warning in Hamid, R (on the application of) v Secretary Of State For The Home Department [2012] EWHC 3070 (Admin), Sir John Thomas has explicitly warned immigration solicitors that any future failures to adhere to the requirement of the High Court to make full and proper disclosure of all material facts will result in referral to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
In the recently released judgment Awuku, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWHC 3298 (Admin), Sir John, President of the Queen's Bench Division, names three immigration solicitors responsible for "grave failure to disclose".
He says that had the full facts been disclosed, the applications would not have been made, as it would have been obvious they would not succeed.
Sir John continued: "It must be appreciated, in particular in this kind of case where on many days this court is faced with a very large number of applications, that it is absolutely essential that there is put on the face of the submission all the points that tell against the grant of relief; that is the absolute duty of the solicitor or counsel."
Sir John noted that this is a long-standing failure in this kind of work and accepted the apologies of each of the solicitors concerned, but warned: "That will be the last time this court will, unless there are strong mitigating circumstances, fail to refer people to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for a breach of these very high duties to the court."