Disciplinary Process

Disciplinary Process

The disciplinary process of the Estonian Actuarial Society (EAS) sets the procedure and rules for conducting disciplinary proceedings in the EAS, defines sanctions to members for disciplinary offences and describes the process of appeal.

A disciplinary offence is a violation of the statutes, rules of procedure or decisions taken at the general meetings of the Society. It also includes any actions and/or behaviours that can be seen as in violation of the professional Code of Ethics or the Code of Conduct of actuaries.

It is not only the members of the Society that have the right to file a complaint. Any individual or legal entity can file a complaint against a member of the Society. A member of the Society themselves can also initiate disciplinary proceedings to investigate their own conduct.  

Every member of the Society has the right for independent and objective disciplinary proceedings.

Disciplinary Committee

In order to proceed disciplinary offences, a Disciplinary Committee is formed.

Five (5) assessors of the Disciplinary Committee (the Court) will be elected for a three-year term at the general meeting of the Society. The assessors can only be full members of the Society who have been members of the Society for at least three (3) years and have an impeccable reputation.

To handle each case, the elected assessors will appoint three persons among themselves to form a Court Panel. A member of the Court Panel cannot have a conflict of interest when proceeding the case. Should an actual or potential conflict of interest arise, the person appointed to the Court Panel must withdraw from the panel. A new member of the Court Panel will be appointed to replace them.

The Court will appoint a presiding judge among themselves.

The Court has the right to make a ruling if the entire Court Panel is present. A ruling is valid when 2/3 of the Court panel is in favour of the ruling.

Once the Court has set the date for the hearing, it notifies the defendant at least twenty-one (21) days in advance. Upon the agreement of the parties, the matter can be discussed before the set date.

The member who is the defendant in the disciplinary proceeding undertakes to attend the hearing personally and participate in the procedural acts. The have the right to bring advisers to the hearing and also use the assistance of a defence council. The defendant has the right to submit written or oral evidence to the Court and give justifications to defend their behaviour.

The Court will discuss the offence while the defendant is present. In the case the defendant fails to attend the hearing for the second time, the discussion might be held without their presence.

The ruling is made at a closed Court session. The defendant is either found guilty or acquitted. The Court might decide to drop the proceedings, stop the discussion, and not make a ruling if it is found that the case is not in the authority of the Court.

Disciplinary sanctions

If the Court has found a member of the Society to be guilty in the offence, one of the following sanctions will be applied, depending on the gravity of the matter:

• warning,
• public admonition,
• lowering the membership status in the Society,
• exclusion from the Society.

The Court notifies the defendant in writing in three (3) days at the latest after the Court has made its ruling. The ruling will take effect after the appeal period has passed if no appeal has been made.

Appeal procedure

After the ruling, each party has the right to make an appeal to the Appellate Body. The Appellate Body  includes all full members of the Society, excluding the three members of the Court Panel who were responsible for proceeding the case.

The appeal shall be made to the Management in fourteen (14) days after the Court has made its ruling.

Upon receiving the appeal, the Management shall convene Appellate Body in forty-five (45) days by notifying all members at least fourteen (14) days in advance. 

The party making the appeal has the right to attend the appeal hearing alone or with their advisers / defence councils. The Appellate Body can also have their own adviser.

The presiding judge of the Court presents the Court’s ruling to the Appellate Body and gives their justification for the ruling. The party making the appeal has the right to present their own justifications as to why they think the Court’s ruling is wrong or unjust. 

The Appellate Body can make a ruling if more than 50 per cent of the full and associate members of the Society are present. If the Appellate Body is unable to make a ruling, the discussion of the matter is postponed for twenty-one (21) days and a new Appellate Body meeting will be convened.

The Appellate Body can either uphold the ruling, reduce the sanction, or overrule. A 2/3 majority is needed to make a ruling. The ruling of the Appellate Body is final and not subject to appeal.

The parties are notified of the ruling of the Appellate Body in writing in at least fourteen (14) days before it enters into force.

Notification and confidentiality

The members of the Society and all other publicly included parties are notified in writing of the Court’s ruling and/or the ruling of the Appellate Body made after an appeal. The rulings of the Court and the Appellate Body are public.  

As a rule, all discussions and procedures of the Court and the Appellate Body and the evidence and statements given to these bodies are considered confidential and kept in secret. The Society reserves a right to make all details of the case public in the case the confidentiality requirement is violated, or all parties agree to it. 

 

Section 9 of the EAL house rules, updated December 2022