Unfortunately there is little information on this recent news report, however the British Medical Association has published a note to the effect that a number of solicitors had been threatening doctors with legal action if a doctor did not provide COVID-19 exemption for the solicitor’s clients. The BMA newsfeed stated:
The BMA’s medico-legal committee (MLC) has written to the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority (SRA), and has been assured that solicitors should not be ‘writing in offensive, threatening or intimidatory ways. And we also do not expect solicitors to pursue matters which they know have no legal merit.’
Although related to a different aspect of COVID-19 public health orders, NSW readers will recall the recent decision in Buckley v Council of the Law Society of New South Wales [2022] NSWSC 328 (on AUSTLII). In that matter Ward CJ in Eq commented obiter at [108]:
The Council clearly had regard to the paramountcy of public interest in the administration of justice (see its reasons) and the fact that the comments were made by a legal practitioner on a law firm’s social media accounts and carrying with them the imprimatur of the legal practitioner’s status as a legal practitioner and officer of the Court, coupled with the fact that the solicitor was the solicitor on the record in the very proceedings the subject of the impugned comments, makes clear the need to give weight to the upholding of public confidence in the administration of justice (a fundamental tenet of the rule of law).
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