Accrington junior lawyer struck off

Assistant solicitor David James Carr, 33, of Sherbourne Road, Accrington, was hauled before the Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal to answer dishonesty claims.

The tribunal heard how Carr had missed a vital deadline for lodging a compensation claim on behalf of the victim, named only as Mr S.

And instead of coming clean about his mistake, Carr continued to work on the claim ‘out of hours’ until his deception was uncovered.

Stephen Battersby, for the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority, said Carr worked for Berkeley solicitors in Droylsden, Greater Manchester, at the time of the offences.

He was accused of dishonestly providing misleading information to a client and acting towards his employers with a lack of good faith, allegations which were admitted by Carr before the hearing.

Carr had been working on a personal injury claim for Mr S after a motorcycle accident in January 2001.

Because the circumstances surrounding the crash were ‘not particularly helpful’ to Mr S, the third party insurers in the case offered a settlement, based on their client admitting to 25 per cent liability.

Carr and a supervisor at Berkeley’s met to discuss the case in 2003 and decided to settle in the case.

But no action was taken by Carr and the deadlne for beginning proceedings in court passed in January 2004.

The tribunal heard that Carr continued to tell Mr S that the case had been settled in his favour and damages were being worked out between the parties.

Mr Battersby said: “(Carr’s) actions in misleading the client in that way were deliberate and could not be viewed in any other way than that they were dishonest.”

In a statement submitted to the hearing, Carr said: “This was misconduct on my behalf and was a weakness under pressure.

“I simply stuck my head in the sand and hoped that this would go away."

The tribunal panel ordered that Carr’s name should be struck off the Solicitor’s Roll and told him to pay £4,074 costs.