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A sad story but this woman clearly took the most foolish of paths and must pay the price.

My first two years in the profession were spent in an environment I can only describe as chaos. Workloads were unduly high and you might well inherit an issued multi-track injury file with the following on the front of the file in this order:

- Unless order to file AQ;
- AQ;
- Offer;
- Defence;

If you were lucky, the case would be pleaded for the appropriate amount and you would have a couple of days to get that AQ filed (with fee!)... If not you might be making an application that day. I was intimately acquainted with the old 3.9 criteria and could dictate them without any reference to the White Book!

Having gotten somewhat sidetracked... The normal course, if somebody had the above type scenario and didn't know how to cope/deal with it, inherited or of their own making, they would tend to 'bury' the file and go into a form of denial. I can't recall ever seeing a fee earner be so brazen as to manufacture documents and applications in this manner and it was a very high pressure environment where managers were completely out of their depth themselves and utterly unforgiving. This solicitor appears to have gone the extra mile...

So sympathy yes for her, she's probably spent the last 10 years gearing up for and them immersing herself in a career in the law to the point many of us reach where her work defines her to one degree or another. And now she has to start from scratch. But that can't excuse what she did and the decision seems fair.

As to the managers, well that's a matter for them but I'm sure the post-mortem will have been suitably ugly...

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