Australia: Qld lawyer to be struck off after disappearing act | Practice Source - Legal News and Views

Lawyers Weekly Australia

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) recommended that Peter Elliot Clark’s name be removed from the roll of legal practitioners, having found him guilty of both unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.

QCAT judicial member Peter Lyons KC, along with practitioner panel member Petrina Macpherson and lay panel member Julie Cork, found Clark’s failure to attend to a client’s matter between April 2016 and September 2017 and again between February 2018 and May 2019 demonstrated an “unfitness to practice”.“While there may be some explanation for inactivity for relatively brief periods, the respondent’s failure to advance the appeal … is a substantial failure to comply with his duty,” the members said.

Clark was retained by the client in early 2015 to assist with a rejected WorkCover claim for alleged psychiatric injuries from his work at UGL Operations Management Services. At that time and until June 2017, Clark was the legal director of Eureka Legal in Mackay.

From the engagement and up until February 2016, Clark took several steps to advance the matter, including by filing a notice of appeal in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC).

QCAT judicial member Peter Lyons KC, along with practitioner panel member Petrina Macpherson and lay panel member Julie Cork, found Clark’s failure to attend to a client’s matter between April 2016 and September 2017 and again between February 2018 and May 2019 demonstrated an “unfitness to practice”.

“While there may be some explanation for inactivity for relatively brief periods, the respondent’s failure to advance the appeal … is a substantial failure to comply with his duty,” the members said.

Clark was retained by the client in early 2015 to assist with a rejected WorkCover claim for alleged psychiatric injuries from his work at UGL Operations Management Services. At that time and until June 2017, Clark was the legal director of Eureka Legal in Mackay.

From the engagement and up until February 2016, Clark took several steps to advance the matter, including by filing a notice of appeal in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC).