Graeme C Miller

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

Graeme C Miller was found guilty of professional misconduct for including clauses in his firm's Terms of Business that penalised clients (£500 + VAT, and £2,500 per head of complaint) for complaining to the SLCC, thereby impeding clients' statutory right to complain. The Tribunal found his conduct lacked integrity but expressly noted no question of dishonesty arose and the Complainers made no allegation of dishonesty. He was censured and fined £1,000. At a later compensation hearing, the Tribunal awarded the Secondary Complainer £750 for inconvenience and distress (declining a £2,300 boiler-related claim as not a direct effect of the misconduct), plus 8% interest. The Respondent was liable for expenses of the Complainers and Tribunal; no expenses were due in the compensation hearing.

Duties found breached:

• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Actions were likely to damage the reputation of the profession
• Attempted to contract out of ethical duties and impede clients' statutory right to complain to the SLCC
• Subordinated the interests of clients to his own interests

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent cooperated with the Fiscal and the Tribunal
• Took proper advice and revised his Terms of Business, which were approved by the SLCC
• No ongoing risk to the public
• High volume of transactions (800-1,000 residential conveyancing per year) with very few complaints
• Prior 2008 censure was from some time ago and concerned different subject matter
• Never actually levied any charge under the offending terms