Medical evidence was “insufficiently detailed and unconvincing”
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has published its decision to reject Lord Harley’s bid for a fresh re-hearing of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) charges against him.
Harley — who’s real name is Alan Blacker — was struck-off in July, after the SDT found the regulator had proven seven out of the eight charges, including dishonesty.
Applying for a re-hearing earlier this month, Blacker — represented by Goldsmith Chambers’ Anton van Dellen — claimed that the SDT (which is based in London) had failed to accommodate Blacker’s disability by refusing to move proceedings closer to his home in Rochdale.
However, in a memorandum published yesterday, the SDT stated that Blacker’s medical evidence was “insufficiently detailed and unconvincing”. Continuing, the SDT said “it would send entirely the wrong message to the profession if a re-hearing was ordered”. As a result Blacker’s application was refused.
Blacker — who was slapped with a hefty £86,000 costs order at the original hearing — was handed a further bill of £7,500 to cover the SRA’s response to the rehearing application.
The eccentric former solicitor-advocate first hit headlines back in August 2014 after an in-court bust-up with Judge David Wynn Morgan. Allegedly appearing in court wearing colourful ribbons and badges on his gown, Morgan suggested Blacker looked like something out of “Harry Potter”.
Read the decision in full below:
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