Unsatisfactory conduct. Delay in payment to client
This is a summary of a decision by a Lawyers Standards Committee under the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006. This summary was published in LawTalk 761, 1 November 2010.
A lawyer who delayed in returning money to a client after a property transaction was found guilty of unsatisfactory conduct and ordered to pay compensation to the client.
The lawyer had acted on the sale of the client’s home. Roughly $25,000 of the client’s money had been left in the lawyer’s trust account after settlement on 22 October 2009, but this was not returned to the client until late January 2010, three months later.
Shortly before settlement the lawyer had become critically ill and was admitted to hospital. She had given a power of attorney to another lawyer, and he conducted the settlement. The client repeatedly asked the attorney about her money, both before and after settlement, but he told her he did not have access to the trust account. The lawyer who was the subject of the complaint returned to work in late December, but there was a delay of a further month before the client received her money, on 26 January.
The lawyer told the Standards Committee her attorney would have been able to account to the client for the money while she was in hospital, although she understood his reluctance to delve into another lawyer’s trust account. The committee took account of her illness, but said this did not explain the delay, as she could and should have resolved the matter promptly when she returned to work in December. The delay was unacceptable, and she had breached Rule 3 of the Conduct and Client Care Rules, which provides that:
“In providing regulated services to a client, a lawyer must always act competently and in a timely manner consistent with the terms of the retainer and the duty to take reasonable care.”
Finding her guilty of unsatisfactory conduct, the Standards Committee ordered the lawyer to pay $600 in compensation to the client and $500 in costs to the New Zealand Law Society.