When your career itself is on the line, you may have the right to a lawyer at your internal disciplinary.
“When a disciplinary outcome could effectively end your career in your profession, you may have a right to legal representation that goes beyond the usual internal rules.”
When a disciplinary outcome could effectively end your career in your profession, you may have a right to legal representation that goes beyond the usual internal rules.
- Read your contract and disciplinary policy for any right to representation before you respond.
- Request legal representation in writing, early, and say why the stakes justify it.
- Contact your defence organisation, professional body, or union as soon as proceedings begin.
The situation
A hospital doctor in training faced disciplinary proceedings by his NHS trust after an allegation that he had improperly touched a patient. He asked to be represented at the hearing by a legally qualified person supplied by his medical defence organisation. The trust refused, saying its disciplinary policy did not allow legal representation and that there were no exceptional circumstances to justify it. If the charge was upheld, it was serious enough to have effectively barred him from working in the NHS.
What the court found
The Court of Appeal read the contract between an NHS trust and a doctor or dentist as entitling the doctor to be represented at the disciplinary hearingA formal meeting at which your employer sets out the allegation against you and gives you the opportunity to respond before any decision is made. You have the right to be accompanied by a colleague or... by a legally qualified person employed or retained by a defence organisation. The court also said that Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to a fair hearing, can be engaged where a doctor faces charges so grave that a finding against them would effectively bar them from NHS employment. In that situation the proceedings come close to determining a criminal-type charge with very serious consequences, and a right to legal representation can follow.
Kulkarni v Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | [2009] EWCA Civ 789; [2009] IRLR 829 | Court of Appeal | 23 July 2009