Legal Profession Act 2006

(1) A disciplinary application may be made to the Disciplinary Tribunal at any time within 6 months after the Law Society decides that proceedings be started in the Tribunal in relation to the complaint concerned.

(2) Despite subsection (1), the Tribunal may, on written application by the Society, extend the time for making a disciplinary application.

(3) In exercising the power to extend the time for making a disciplinary application, the Tribunal must have regard to all the circumstances of the case.

(4) Without limiting subsection (3), the Tribunal must have regard to the following:

(b) the extent to which, having regard to the delay, there is or may be prejudice to the legal practitioner concerned by reason that evidence that would have been available if the application had been made within the 6-month period is no longer available;

(c) the reasonableness of the Society's explanation for the delay in making the application.

(5) The time for making a disciplinary disciplinary application may be extended under subsection (2) although that time has expired.

(6) For subsection (1), a decision that proceedings be started is made when the Society decides there is a reasonable likelihood that the legal practitioner concerned will be found by the Tribunal to have engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct as mentioned in section 496(2) or 497(1).

(7) An official record or notice of a decision mentioned in subsection (6) specifying the date the decision was made is evidence the decision was made and of the date the decision was made.