Australian Lawyers Weekly highlights 2 more luverrly lawyers…
WA solicitor billed elderly woman $97k despite expert opinion
A West Australian solicitor charged his elderly client just under $100,000 in fees over one year despite being told she lacked the capacity to make complex financial and legal decisions.
John Wesley Butler, director with Butler’s Lawyers, was found guilty of professional misconduct in the State Administrative Tribunal for causing his firm to receive $97,747.19 from an 89-year-old woman when there “existed in his mind a real doubt as to her capacity”.
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NSW solicitor banned from practising for perverting course of justice
Peter Desmond Payne, who ran his own practice out of Cobar, had his practising certificate for the year ending 30 June 2024 cancelled, according to the Registrar of Disciplinary Action.
The registrar said the decision was made following a “conviction for a serious offence, namely ‘do act etc intending to pervert the course of justice’ pursuant to s319 of the Crimes Act 1900”.
Mr Payne pleaded guilty to the charge in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court in mid-September this year.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Mr Payne was convicted for perverting the course of justice when he helped a client avoid what he said was a “trap” set by police to “flush you out”.
