SDT:
A partner at a leading personal injury firm who “deliberately misled” an accident victim for five years over a claim she never issued has been struck off.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) heard that Joanne Elizabeth Allen failed to hand over the file to the client, despite a court order, and misled the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that she was going to give it to them.
She also concealed what was happening from others at the firm.
In an agreed outcome with the solicitor, approved by the SDT, the SRA said Ms Allen, admitted in 2008, was a partner at Bond Turner – the firm owned by listed business Anexo Group – when her client, Mr R, had a serious car accident in March 2014.
Mr R’s claim should have been issued by March 2017 but was never lodged and “at no stage” did Ms Allen tell him there was an issue with his claim.
He told the SRA that he “continually” requested confirmation that proceedings had been issued but never received a response, until in July 2019 he was told the case would be going to hearing in November 2020. But it did not and a complaint he made to Bond Turner was ignored.
He instructed new solicitors, who, having failed to get a response from Bond Turner, contacted third-party insurers who informed them in January 2021 that they had closed their file “as they had not received any further correspondence from the firm following the initial contact, and that proceedings had never been issued”.
After Ms Allen failed to respond to their requests, the new solicitors secured a court order requiring Bond Turner to give the client a copy of his file within 14 days. The costs order for £2,260 was paid but the file not turned over.
Ms Allen told the SRA in April 2021 that the file was being copied and would be sent out that week.
After the SRA issued a production notice, she provided an investigation officer with a special delivery tracking number, but no file arrived and the tracking number “did not appear to exist”.
Bond Turner senior partner Samantha Moss sent the file to the SRA in October 2021. She said in evidence that Ms Allen told her the previous month that she had “massively messed up”.
Ms Bond said: “She accepted that she had failed to tell us about the complaint and that she was very sorry. All she said was that no claim has been issued in court as the limitation date had passed and that she had panicked.”
Ms Allen admitted to the SRA in December 2021 that proceedings were not issued and Mr R “was misled”.
Ms Allen admitted acting dishonestly and with a lack of integrity. In non-agreed mitigation, she said: “I have accepted the allegations and offered my full apologies and regret from a very early stage in this process.”
The SDT said: “[Ms Allen] had misled her client over an extended period and failed to deal in a timely way with requests to transfer his file to another solicitor. The continued dishonesty and lack of integrity was so serious that strike off from the roll was the only appropriate sanction.”
Ms Allen was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £7,000.
In a statement, Ms Moss said: “As soon as the matter came to light, with Ms Allen admitting that she had concealed the matter from the other directors, she was suspended and thereafter dismissed.
“The firm cooperated fully with the SRA and fully supports the outcome, there being no place whatsoever for such behaviour and conduct in the profession.”
In May, we reported on a former partner at Slater & Gordon being struck off for deceiving a client for 17 years about the progress on her claim.
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