The Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) is a specialist tribunal in Scotland with jurisdiction over serious disciplinary issues within the solicitor profession in Scotland.
The Commission then sifts those complaints and determines if they are service-related (in which case the SLCC has jurisdiction) or conduct-related.
If complaints are related to the conduct of a solicitor the complaints are referred to the Law Society of Scotland, whose Council can determine if the complaint relates to unsatisfactory conduct (which the Law Society deals with internally) or professional misconduct which is then prosecuted before the Tribunal.
[3] A Section 53(1)(b) complaint is a complaint that a solicitor has been convicted by a court in an act involving dishonesty, fined in amount equivalent to level 4 on the standard scale, or sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 12 months or more.
[5] The Tribunal consists of two solicitors (who cannot be members of the governing body of the Law Society of Scotland, the Council of the Law Society of Scotland) and two lay members who are drawn from all walks of life.