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discipline 4 October 2026
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Decision record

(unnamed respondent)

JurisdictionScotland
BodyScottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal (SSDT)
Professionsolicitor
Date31st Jan 2023
AppealNo Appeal

Appeals and appellate references

“Unverified” means the upstream page linked an appellate judgment but did not preserve enough context to prove that it was an appeal in this matter.

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

SanctionDismissed
Dishonesty foundNo

Maria Forrest-Muir appealed against a PCSC decision that made no finding of unsatisfactory professional conduct against solicitor John Kevin Duffy, who had disclosed her personal data (her name and the fact she had made SLCC complaints) to her siblings in responding to a subject access request. The ICO had upheld her data breach complaint but took no action. The Tribunal, applying Hood, Petitioner, found the appeal failed to identify any error in the PCSC decision, relied largely on matters outside the original complaint, and made no link between the data breach and unsatisfactory professional conduct. The appeal was irrelevant and lacking in specification and bound to fail even if proved. The preliminary plea was upheld, the appeal dismissed, the appellant found liable in expenses, and publicity ordered naming all parties.

Documents

Source: https://www.ssdt.org.uk/findings/section-42za-appeal-by-maria-forrest-muir/