§ discipline

Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience court

On learning a client or witness has lied, falsified, suppressed evidence, or intends to disobey a court order, the lawyer must not advance the false case and must withdraw or inform the court unless the client authorises correction.

140 cases 64% strike-off avg suspension 37.9 mo avg fine 275,000 33 with dishonesty finding

How the codes express this duty

E&W Solicitors SRA Principles & Code CCS 1.4; CCS 2.4 partial 119 cases
1.4 You do not mislead or attempt to mislead your clients, the court or others, either by your own acts or omissions or allowing or being complicit in the acts or omissions of others (including your client). 2.4 You only make assertions or put forward statements, representations or submissions to the court or others which are properly arguable.

SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs and RFLs · 2019 · archived copy · official source ↗

E&W Barristers BSB Handbook rC25.2; rC25.3; gC11 strong 8 cases
rC25 ... you must cease to act and return your instructions if: .2 the client refuses to authorise you to make some disclosure to the court which your duty to the court requires you to make; or .3 you become aware during the course of a case of the existence of a document which should have been but has not been disclosed, and the client fails to disclose it or fails to permit you to disclose it, contrary to your advice. gC11 If your client refuses to allow you to make the disclosure you must cease to act, and return your instructions.

BSB Handbook · current · archived copy · official source ↗

Cayman Islands Legal Services Code 2026 R.2.4(c); R.2.4(d) partial
call witnesses to give evidence or put affidavits or witness statements to the Court which the attorney-at-law knows, or is instructed, are untrue or misleading; or invent a defence for a client or suggest to the client or to a witness the use of words in evidence which would distort the facts

Cayman Islands Legal Services Code of Professional Conduct · 2026 · archived copy

AU Solicitors Solicitors' Conduct Rules Rules 20.1; 20.3 strong
20.1 A solicitor who... learns... that the client or a witness called on behalf of the client: 20.1.1 has lied in a material particular to the court... must - 20.1.5 refuse to take any further part in the case unless the client authorises the solicitor to inform the court of the lie, falsification or suppression... 20.3 A solicitor whose client informs the solicitor that the client intends to disobey a court's order must: 20.3.1 advise the client against that course...; 20.3.2 not advise the client how to carry out or conceal that course...

Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules · 2015 (June 2026 compilation) · archived copy · official source ↗

AU Barristers Uniform Barristers Rules rr78-80 strong 1 case
A barrister who ... learns ... that the client or a witness ... has lied in a material particular to the court ... must refuse to take any further part in the case unless the client authorises the barrister to inform the court of the lie, falsification or suppression and must promptly inform the court ... A barrister whose client informs the barrister that the client intends to disobey a court's order must: (a) advise the client against that course ... (b) not advise the client how to carry out or conceal that course.

Legal Profession Uniform Conduct (Barristers) Rules · 2015 (as amended 14 May 2025) · archived copy · official source ↗

IE Solicitors Law Society Guide Ch5 — Perjury by a client strong
A solicitor must decline to act further in any proceedings where a solicitor has knowledge that the client has committed perjury or has misled the court in relation to those proceedings, unless the client agrees to make a full disclosure of their conduct to the court.

Solicitor's Guide to Professional Conduct (Law Society of Ireland) · 4th ed. (2022) · archived copy · official source ↗

IE Barristers Bar Code of Conduct Rule 5.3(e) strong
Where a Barrister becomes aware that any false or misleading statement of fact has been made by or on behalf of that Barrister's client ... the Barrister shall (i) be satisfied that any such statement of fact has been corrected before any further step be taken ... or (ii) withdraw from the matter before any such step be taken by any party without such correction having been made.

Code of Conduct for the Bar of Ireland · 2024 · archived copy · official source ↗

JM Attorneys Canons of Professional Ethics Canon V(m); Canon V(n); Canon IV(q)(ii)-(iii) strong 4 cases
(m) An Attorney shall not knowingly use perjured testimony or false evidence or participate in the creation or use of evidence which he knows to be false. (n) An Attorney shall not counsel or assist his client or a witness, in conduct that the Attorney knows to be illegal or fraudulent, and where he is satisfied that his client has in the course of the particular representation perpetrated a fraud upon a person or tribunal, he shall promptly call upon him to rectify the same.

Legal Profession (Canons of Professional Ethics) Rules · 1978 (principal) · archived copy · official source ↗

JE Lawyers Law Society of Jersey Code R.3.4 d); G.3.3 strong
Members must not: ... d) call witnesses to give evidence or put affidavits or witness statements to the court which they know, or are instructed, are untrue or misleading, unless they make clear to the court the true position as known by or instructed to them... [G.3.3] If their client refuses to allow them to make the disclosure they must cease to act, and return their instructions. In these circumstances the member must not reveal the information to the court.

Law Society of Jersey Code of Conduct · 1 January 2017 · archived copy · official source ↗

ON Lawyers LSO Rules of Prof. Conduct r 5.1-2(e),(k); r 5.1-4 commentary [1] strong
5.1-2 ... (k) knowingly permit a witness or party to be presented in a false or misleading way or to impersonate another ... [5.1-4 commentary [1]] If the client desires that a course be taken that would involve a breach of the rules in Section 5.1, the lawyer must refuse and do everything reasonably possible to prevent it. If that cannot be done the lawyer should, subject to the rules in Section 3.7 (Withdrawal from Representation), withdraw or seek leave to do so.

Law Society of Ontario — Rules of Professional Conduct · current · archived copy · official source ↗

BC Lawyers BC Code r 5.1-2(e),(k) strong 4 cases
When acting as an advocate, a lawyer must not: ... (e) knowingly attempt to deceive a tribunal or influence the course of justice by offering false evidence ... or otherwise assisting in any fraud, crime or illegal conduct; ... (k) knowingly permit a witness or party to be presented in a false or misleading way or to impersonate another;

Code of Professional Conduct for British Columbia (BC Code) · 2017 · archived copy · official source ↗

NZ Lawyers Conduct & Client Care Rules r 13.10.1 strong
If a witness (not being the lawyer's client) gives material evidence in support of the lawyer's client's case that the lawyer knows to be false, the lawyer must, in the absence of a retraction, refuse to examine the witness further on that matter. If the witness is the client of the lawyer, the lawyer must, in the absence of a retraction, cease to act for that client.

Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules 2008 · SR 2008/214 · archived copy · official source ↗

SCO Solicitors LSS Standards of Conduct B1.13 partial 4 cases
You must never knowingly give false or misleading information to the court.

Law Society of Scotland — Practice Rules 2011, Rule B1 (Standards of Conduct) · 2011 · archived copy · official source ↗

SG Lawyers Professional Conduct Rules 2015 r 10 (Responsibility for client’s conduct) partial
10 Responsibility for client’s conduct

Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules 2015 · 2015 · archived copy · official source ↗

HK Solicitors Solicitors' Guide Principle 10.03 Commentary 5 strong
Where a client, in the course of litigation, admits to his solicitor that he has committed perjury or misled the court in any material matter in those proceedings, it is the duty of his solicitor to decline to act further in the proceedings, unless the client agrees fully to disclose his conduct to the court.

Hong Kong Solicitors' Guide to Professional Conduct (Volume 1) · current · archived copy · official source ↗

HK Barristers Bar Code of Conduct para 10.40 strong
If at any time before judgment is delivered in a civil case, a practising barrister is informed by his lay client that he has committed perjury or has otherwise been guilty of fraud upon the Court, the barrister may not so inform the Court without his client's consent. He may not, however, take any further part in the case unless his client authorises him to inform the Court of the perjured statement or other fraudulent conduct and he has so informed the Court.

Code of Conduct of the Bar of the Hong Kong SAR · 2018 · archived copy · official source ↗

Cases dealing with this duty

Clear

140 decisions · link basis: found breached = a tribunal finding; rule cited = the mapped provision is cited in the decision; text match = high-precision text pattern

Duty classification does not yet cover every jurisdiction (Ontario, New Zealand and Singapore decisions are indexed but not yet duty-classified), so counts here understate those corpora.