Lois Bayliss - Solicitor - Defence Fund

Lois Bayliss is a solicitor, practising in England, with a 17-year unblemished record as a medical negligence lawyer. She has been acting pro bono in relation to challenging the Covid 19 narrative and is now facing regulatory action due to having issued letters in early 2022, warning of the risks to health from the various measures put in place by the UK Government.

At the time of the SARS- CoV-2 (Covid 19) injections being granted emergency use authorisation, she had concern that as they had only been subject to limited trials, there was little safety data available and indeed, no long-term safety data available at all.

As the vaccines were rolled out, information became available which related to their lack of efficacy and poor safety profile. This caused Lois significant concern, particularly heightened when a decision was made to include children aged 12 to 17 in the UK vaccination programme, even though it was also known and acknowledged by this point that Covid posed no risk to healthy children.

Over the past 3 years Lois has:

Over the past 3 years the challenges around the Covid 19 polices and injections has been carried out by Lois on a pro bono basis. In some cases, this has included Lois herself paying barristers fees for those she was representing. Had this work not been carried out pro bono and Lois not funded counsel fees herself for those in need, many families would not have been able to defend themselves or their position in the courts. It is of note that in all cases, the families approaching Lois and requesting her assistance said they had been turned down by other members of the legal profession. Had Lois not taken on these cases, sometimes at short notice, the families involved would not have had a voice within the courts.

The letters issued in February 2022, are the reason for which the SRA are now taking regulatory action against Lois and she is threatened with a fine and estimated costs of £90,750 and that is even if she defends herself against the allegations of professional misconduct. These costs must be paid even if Lois successfully defends herself against the allegations which have been levelled at her by the SRA. Staggeringly, there are only very limited instances where a solicitor who has successfully defended themselves has not been ordered to pay the costs incurred by the SRA in bringing their case.

There has been and remains a clear demand for the work Lois has been undertaking. By bringing this action against her, the SRA will potentially be preventing people from obtaining access to justice.

It is of significant note that Lois acts on behalf of other professionals who are themselves facing sanction by their professional bodies, or regulatory action for speaking out about Covid 19 policy. Defending oneself in such circumstances is very expensive and it is often the risk of this expense which stops some professionals from speaking out at all. By acting pro bono Lois takes a lot of stress from the individuals involved, which provides them with the ability to make appropriate and much needed challenge in relation to government decisions. If Lois is unable to defend herself, maintain her reputation and her ability to practice, these people will not have access to the legal support they so vitally need.

Lois has been notified that her case will go to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) in February 2024. To save costs Lois has defended herself up to this point, but will need independent legal representation leading up to and at the hearing in front of the SDT.

At this stage the estimated cost of defending the case all the way to trial is circa £50k. There is then the estimated £90.750 SRA legal fees (which Lois is likely to be responsible for even if she wins her case), along with the risk of a yet undetermined fine which could be anything up to £50k. It should be noted too, that this estimate of just in excess of £90k for the SRA legal fees will most definitely increase because the SRA had removed most of Lois's defence evidence when the matter was handed over to the SDT and since the SRA have now had to add defence evidence to documentation presented to the SDT, the estimated costs are highly likely to double if not triple. Importantly however, this does all provide an opportunity to place vital evidence before the SDT. This means that Lois needs to raise a minimum of £200k in order to fully defend herself.

All monies donated to Lois's fund will only be used to fund her counsel (barrister) fees and any tribunal fees, plus such adverse costs which may be awarded against her and any fine imposed.

She will be transparent in relation to all accounting and spending made from fund donations.

Thank you very much in anticipation for any support you are able to provide.