Just over half of the British public trust lawyers to tell the truth, according to an Ipsos MORI poll, while judges are the third most trusted profession overall.
According to the survey carried out on nearly 1,000 adults, judges are trusted by 80 per cent of the British population. Only doctors and teachers are trusted more by 89 per cent and 86 per cent of the public respectively.
Lawyers are the twelfth most-trusted profession ahead of NHS managers, local councillors, journalists and banks.
A total of 51 per cent of those surveyed trusted lawyers to tell the truth. Those in the 15-24 age bracket were found to trust lawyers far less (44 per cent) than those aged over 65 (58 per cent). Meanwhile lawyers were more trusted by people based in the South (61 per cent) than those in the North (46 per cent).
While lawyers did not feature in last year’s poll, judges have featured since the first survey was conducted in 1983. In 1984, 68 per cent of the British public trusted judges – the lowest point in the last 32 years.