The Court of Appeal set aside a HK$40,000 fine imposed on a barrister for her conduct during disciplinary proceedings, but dismissed most of her appeal against the misconduct findings. The reprimand imposed by the barristers’ disciplinary tribunal remains.
The upheld finding concerned a June 2020 Facebook repost of a 2013 column criticising former chief justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang. The barrister added a comment expressing agreement. The Court of Appeal said the tribunal was entitled to find that sharing the material without a factual basis could undermine public confidence in the administration of justice.
Her case was that family members shared the Facebook account and that her brother had made the repost. The tribunal rejected his evidence, and the appeal court declined to disturb its assessment of his credibility, finding there were sufficient grounds to infer that the barrister made the post.
The fine was imposed over what the tribunal described as the barrister’s uncooperative attitude during the proceedings. The appeal court ruled that such conduct should, in principle, be reflected in an adverse costs order rather than punished with an additional fine.
The tribunal’s record was inconsistent over a separate complaint concerning a February 2020 post. One part of the decision treated that complaint as established, but a later summary of the successful complaints omitted it. The appeal court did not correct the inconsistency because it was outside the appeal.
Because the barrister succeeded on only a limited part of her appeal, the court ordered her to pay 90% of the Hong Kong Bar Association’s appeal costs.