A divorce client whose solicitor misled her and others about the progress of her case has said her trust in the legal profession is ‘broken’. Kathryn Poole, admitted in September 2007, was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
Poole, a consultant solicitor with Cornwall firm Vingoe Family Law, had told her client she had applied to a pension provider as part of income disclosure requirements, yet she had failed to ask for any information before a court-imposed deadline. Poole kept up the pretence for three months that she was awaiting requested information. During this time, a penal notice and an adverse costs order of £250 were made against the client, with Poole failing to inform either the client or the firm about this.
The tribunal heard that the relationship with the client had appeared friendly, with the pair exchanging light-hearted messages about the client’s financial situation. But the client had started to enquire what was happening when she stopped hearing from Poole. The solicitor then falsely assured her over the phone that the process was being delayed by the pension provider's failure to respond. She also gave this assurance to her own firm, her client’s husband’s lawyers and the court.
The client eventually had to go through the law firm’s owner as she was not able to get hold of Poole. The owner said he had been told by the solicitor that everything was ‘progressing satisfactorily’.
Poole did not attend her hearing and offered no mitigation.
The tribunal found in her absence she had been motivated to mislead her client and the firm by concealing her failure to have taken the appropriate action. Her ongoing failure to be candid about the true position with the missing pension information was exacerbated by her misrepresenting that the fault for the delay lay elsewhere.
The tribunal added: ‘The imposition of a penal notice against [the client], and the prospect of her imprisonment, allied to an adverse costs order represented significant harm to [the client], who later explained that her trust in the legal profession had been broken by the [Poole’s] actions. Moreover, the firm was exposed to a potential negligence claim by [Poole’s] misconduct, and court resources were wasted as a consequence of [her] misrepresentations.’
Poole was struck off and ordered to pay £33,845 costs.
