Facts
The case concerns a lawyer, A., who is accused of having submitted to the court, in a judicial proceeding, a suspended sentence agreement that differed substantially from the original. The Supervisory Authority for Lawyers of the Canton of Berne opened disciplinary proceedings against him and issued him a warning by decision of 7 December 2018.
A. appealed against this disciplinary decision to the Administrative Court of the Canton of Berne, requesting an oral hearing. The Administrative Court dismissed the appeal on 20 January 2020, without holding an oral hearing.
A. then brought the case before the Federal Tribunal, requesting either the discontinuation of the disciplinary proceedings or the remand of the case to the previous instance for an oral hearing to be held.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal considers that the disciplinary proceedings against lawyers, which provide for the possibility of a professional ban, constitute a dispute over civil rights within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 of the ECHR. Accordingly, the procedural guarantees of Art. 6 para. 1 ECHR, including the right to a public hearing, apply, even when only a warning has been issued in the present case.
The Federal Tribunal notes that the Administrative Court wrongly considered that Art. 6 para. 1 ECHR was not…