(unnamed respondent)

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Appeal by a member of the public (Maria Forrest-Muir) under s.42ZA(10) of the Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1980 against a PCSC decision that made no finding of unsatisfactory professional conduct against the solicitor (John Kevin Duffy). The complaint concerned the solicitor's disclosure of the Appellant's personal data (her name and the fact she had made SLCC complaints) to her siblings. The ICO had upheld a data breach complaint but took no action. The First Respondents (Law Society) raised a preliminary plea that the grounds of appeal disclosed no prima facie basis and were irrelevant/lacking in specification. The Tribunal applied the Hood, Petitioner test and found the appeal did not identify any error of law, unsupported finding, or fundamental error by the PCSC, and failed to link the data breach to unsatisfactory professional conduct. Much of the appeal concerned matters outside the original complaint. The Tribunal upheld the preliminary plea and dismissed the appeal, finding the Appellant liable in expenses. No finding of misconduct or dishonesty was made against the solicitor.