What Does SOP Mean in Court News?

In the context of law, SOP stands for standards of practice. This is the published set of bare minimum expectations for professionals in a given field. These standards are developed by a community in the relevant industry and updated periodically.

Importance

• Standards of practice are important because they offer guidelines that can be measured against for quality of service. Closely related to the code of ethics in many fields, they ensure that while a customer's experience may vary between carriers or practitioners, it does not vary so much as to adversely affect their quality of service or care.

Change

• The standards of practice of any given field change periodically. Key groups related to the field, such as practitioners, the public and government collect feedback and discuss updates on an ongoing basis.

Accountability

• Standards of practice are referred to in complaint resolution and discipline hearings. In the case of a lawsuit, this is usually because the plaintiff claims the defendant violated the relevant SOP in some way.