A paralegal at national firm Irwin Mitchell has been found to have acted dishonestly after backdating a letter.

Charlotte Earl, who worked as a paralegal in the Sheffield office of Irwin Mitchell handling road traffic accident claims between June 2018 and March 2022, was handed a section 43 notice by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Earl was found to have backdated a letter she had prepared on 26 April 2021 to 19 April 2021, and sent it to a third party under cover of an email that told the recipient the letter had been posted last week when it had only been created that day.

In another client matter, Earl had been given authority to obtain a client’s medical records. She told the client she was awaiting the records and had chased for them when she had not requested or chased for them.

In a third client matter, Earl told the court she had written to a client on 29 June 2021. The letter she was referring to was not sent until 5 July

The SRA imposed restrictions on where and how Earl can work in an SRA-regulated firm after finding she had acted dishonestly and recklessly. Her conduct was deemed as serious.

The regulator said it was ‘undesirable for Ms Earl to be involved in a legal practice without the SRA’s prior written consent’.

The section 43 order means that Earl cannot be employed or remunerated by an SRA-regulated firm, solicitor, or body without the regulator’s permission.

Earl was also ordered to pay £600 costs.

Following the decision notice being published, a spokesman for Irwin Mitchell said: ‘The firm takes its regulatory obligations very seriously and we reported this matter to the SRA as soon as we identified the concerns regarding Ms Earl’s conduct.

‘Ms Earl is no longer an employee and while we can’t comment on individual cases specifically, we have robust supervision policies and procedures in place and where any issues are identified we will take disciplinary action as appropriate.’

 

This article is now closed for comment.