A High Court judge has directed the Supreme Court Registrar to start the process which would see an attorney being hauled before the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Association to answer allegations of professional misconduct and grave misconduct.
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Justice Shona Griffith gave the order as she dealt with the civil matter, involving the misappropriation of almost $150 000 in money, brought by Donna Lynette Patricia Gittens against attorney Susanna Thompson.
“The court would be in dereliction of its duty were it to ignore that there are serious improprieties raised in respect of [Thompson’s] conduct as an attorney-at-law, which ought to be brought to the attention of the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Association,” the judge said in her written decision.
“The conduct arising out of this hearing, which the court finds that it is obliged to cause the Registrar to act under Section 19(1) of the Legal Profession Act, includes [Thompson’s] failure to return the sum of $141 792.25 to [Gittens] and failure to satisfactorily account for that money; agreeing with [Gittens] to misrepresent and on her case – indeed misrepresenting to a third party that she was the attorney-at-law for [Gittens’ deceased grandmother]; producing and/or uttering a false court document, and sustaining the misrepresentation to [Gittens] about the existence and conduct of fictitious court proceedings for almost three years,” Justice Griffith stated. Gittens had retained Thompson as her attorney and paid over $141 792.25 to her to be held in escrow. The sum was the proceeds of a joint account Gittens held with her deceased grandmother, and Gittens had asked Thompson to hold the funds in escrow pending the completion of administration of her grandmother’s estate.
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