W. Anthony Pearson

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

The Complainant retained the Attorney in 2004 to enforce a Supreme Court judgment for compensation arising from a 1987 motor vehicle accident. The Attorney took various enforcement steps but, after learning in May 2010 of the death of Joe Watt (executor of the deceased judgment debtor), failed to advance the matter, only advising the Complainant some four years later. The Panel found the Attorney breached Canon IV(r) by failing to deal with the client's business with all due expedition and failing to act in a business-like manner from mid-2010 to 2015, including failing to reconstruct the lost court file. The Attorney was found guilty of professional misconduct under Canon VIII(d). No express finding of dishonesty was made. He was fined $600,000 (payable to the Complainant in partial satisfaction of damage) and ordered to pay costs of $250,000.

Duties found breached:

• No conflict between current clients
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Attorney dropped the matter after learning of Joe Watt's death in May 2010, placing the Complainant at a serious disadvantage in recovering badly needed compensation
• Some four years' delay before advising the Complainant of the need to take further steps

Mitigating factors:

• No fees were requested or paid by the Complainant
• Attorney did provide some information to the Complainant via letters of 23 August 2013 and 25 March 2014