12 February 2004

The charge against Norma Dias was that she had held herself out to be a solicitor thereby bringing the Institute or its members into disrepute, contrary to section 1(1) of the Institute’s Code of Conduct; and had failed to pay Counsel’s proper fees contrary to principle 20.06 of the Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors, 8th Edition, Section A4 of the Guides to Good Practice for Legal Executives and section 1 of the Institute’s Code of Conduct.

The charge was found proved.

The Disciplinary Tribunal decided that Norma Dias should:

Be excluded from membership.  The Tribunal directed that ILEX should consider an application from Ms Dias for re-instatement of membership once a period of twelve months exclusion had elapsed.  The Tribunal further directed that when considering any such application to renew her membership ILEX must be satisfied that there would be sufficient arrangements in place to supervise the work of Ms Dias.

Compensate counsel to the sum of their outstanding fees.

Pay a contribution of £2,000 towards the Institute’s costs of the proceedings.