Ian George Marsh RICHARDSON

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

In Legal Services Commissioner v Richardson [2009] LPT 17, the Queensland Legal Practice Tribunal found solicitor Ian George Marsh Richardson guilty of professional misconduct on Charge 1 (dishonestly and improperly using clients' enduring powers of attorney to obtain certificates of title so he could assert a lien for unpaid fees, thereby preferring his own interests in a conflict situation) and Charge 2 (acting deceitfully toward clients by concealing his failure to advise of a directions conference, judgment being entered against them, and acting without instructions). The Tribunal made express findings of dishonesty (Charge 1) and deceit (Charge 2). On Charge 4 it found unsatisfactory professional conduct through failure to co-operate with eight investigations. This decision determined liability only; the Tribunal indicated it would separately consider the appropriate sanction under s 456 of the Legal Profession Act 2007, so no penalty, fine or costs order was made in this judgment.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Pattern of consistently ignoring first requests for information until a statutory notice was issued
• Multiple complaints and investigations over an extended period (January 2005 to April 2008)
• Deliberate concealment of errors from clients and use of powers of attorney knowing clients would have refused consent

Mitigating factors:

• Suffered from serious ill health during much of the relevant period (histiocytosis with type 1 respiratory failure, triple vessel ischaemic heart disease, hospitalisations)
• No fee charged to the Wests for the litigation
• Ultimately reimbursed and apologised to the Corishes and rectified the Shepherd/Chalmers title error at his own cost
• Litherland dispute settled and complaint withdrawn (though investigation continued)