Conduct unbecoming. Release of client files
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 754.
A lawyer who failed to release his client’s file and ignored communications from the client’s new lawyers over several months was found guilty by a Standards Committee of unsatisfactory conduct. The lawyer was fined and ordered to pay costs.
The client, who was living overseas, had emailed the lawyer with a signed authority to release her files. Two weeks later her new lawyers also mailed the lawyer a copy of the signed authority. The lawyer did not respond to either of those requests.
When the client complained to the New Zealand Law Society, more than two months after her initial email, the lawyer had still not released the file and was continuing to ignore communications from her new lawyers. The client personally collected her files from the lawyer during a visit to New Zealand several weeks after making her complaint.
The Standards Committee invited the lawyer to explain his failure but, despite several reminders, the invitation went unanswered.
The Standards Committee said it was unacceptable for a lawyer to ignore an authority to release a client’s files, to fail to communicate with the client’s new lawyers, and to ignore enquiries from the Law Society about the matter. The lawyer’s conduct had failed to meet the standards of “competent, ethical and responsible practitioners” (B v Medical Council [2005] 3 NZLR 810).
The Standards Committee found the lawyer guilty of unsatisfactory conduct in the form of conduct unbecoming. It fined him $1,500 and ordered him to pay $600 in costs to the Law Society.