The number of lay applications to prosecute solicitors more than doubled last year, the annual report of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has revealed. The tribunal received a total of 40 applications from members of the public in 2025 – up from 13 in 2024 and 16 in 2023.

Referrals to the tribunal are usually made by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, but if complainants are not happy with the SRA’s decision then they can prepare and present their application themselves. The tribunal does not have powers to investigate or collect evidence on behalf of a lay applicant, but provides guidance to support submissions.

The rise may be part of the same trend reported by the SRA and the legal ombudsman that complaint numbers are rising rapidly as members of the public become more empowered to raise issues about solicitors. The emergence of generative AI has been suggested as an explanation for lay people seeking redress or the prosecution of a solicitor.

But despite a rise in applications, the tribunal generally put a block on cases actually being heard. Of the 40 bids, 32 were not certified by the SDT while just one was allowed to progress to a hearing.

The annual report outlines how the tribunal’s caseload overall has fallen. It received 164 cases from all sources in 2025 – a decrease of 10% - of which 102 were from the SRA (down by 33%).

The tribunal also reported a 5% increase in agreed outcomes, with 42 cases where the respondent and the SRA had already agreed what the sanction should be. In four cases, the tribunal rejected this outcome and made its own determination. These agreed outcomes tended to be last-minute attempts at resolution: of the applications received, 88% (37) were submitted less than the required 28 days in advance of the substantive hearing. Just 12% (five) were received more than 28 days before the hearing.

The tribunal sat for 275 days in 2025, an increase of 66 days compared to 2024. Total spend came to almost £2.9m, but the cost of each sitting day fell by 10% to £10,545.

More than four-fifths (84%) of the 129 tribunal’s judgments were produced within seven weeks, with 64% coming out within four weeks of the hearing.

Over the last five years, 53 tribunal decisions have been appealed by either the SRA or the respondents, with almost two-thirds of those that have been determined resulting in a dismissal and 18% upheld.

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