A solicitor who relied on his lay client’s ‘research’ which cited 49 false authorities is ‘horrified’ and ‘profoundly sorry’, the High Court heard today.
Dame Victoria Sharp, president of the King’s Bench Division, and Mr Justice Johnson heard two cases in which non-existent authorities were cited. The judges will consider whether to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the practitioners involved.
Following this morning’s hearing, the afternoon focused predominantly on the case of Hamad Al-Haroun v Quatar National Bank Q.P.S.C and QNB Capital LLC in which Abid Hussain of Manchester-based Primus Solicitors was found to have relied on authorities produced by his client in relation to an application to set aside an order.
David Lonsdale, for the firm and Hussain, said: ‘There was only one solicitor who was involved in making this application, no one else was involved at all. The question obviously of what was put before the court in a letter and two witness statements was not done deliberately to mislead anyone. As to whether it was done recklessly, in my submission, it was not.’
The court heard the test of recklessness in the judgment of Mrs Justice Whipple, as she then was, in Newson-Smith v Al Zawawi, involved a ‘conscious consideration of whether material was true or false’.
