Data from a survey by Ipsos MORI shows that 80 per cent of British people trust judges to tell the truth, the third highest percentage of any of the professions included. Only teachers, trusted by 86 per cent of survey respondents, and doctors, trusted by 89 per cent, ranked higher. Trust in judges has been on the up since the annual survey first began in 1984, when it was recorded at just 68 per cent.
Lying lawyers
Around 68 per cent of the survey's 990 respondents said that they would generally trust a random man or woman on the street to tell them the truth. This level of trust, however, drops dramatically if that man or woman happens to be a lawyer. According to Ipsos MORI's data, only 51 per cent of people in the UK would generally trust a lawyer to tell the truth. This places legal professionals lower on the trust ladder than hairdressers, civil servants and police officers, among others. Age appeared to be a significant factor determining level of trust in lawyers, with only 44 per cent of younger respondents aged 15-24 years saying that they generally trusted lawyers. However, lawyers still continue to command more trust than many other professionals, including bankers (37 per cent), business leaders (35 per cent) and journalists (25 per cent). Firmly on the bottom of the Ipsos MORI tally are politicians, who are trusted by only 21 per cent of the British public. Source: The Lawyer; Ipsos MORI
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