Jennifer Messado

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

The Complainant, an attorney, alleged that the Respondent attorney Jennifer Messado breached a professional undertaking dated February 17, 2014 by parting with duplicate certificates of title (allowing them to be mortgaged/transferred to Mark Jones and others) without first paying the sums due to the Complainant. The Respondent's counsel's adjournment application and recusal-type objections were denied, and counsel withdrew; the hearing proceeded in the Respondent's absence under Rules 8 and 10. The panel found the Complainant to be a witness of truth and treated the Respondent's affidavit as tantamount to an admission of breach, holding that a genuine belief the client would raise financing is no defence. Applying the criminal standard of proof, the panel found the Respondent guilty of professional misconduct in breach of Canons I(b), IV(s), VI(d) and VI(e). No express finding of dishonesty was made (findings were of breach of undertaking and negligence). The panel reserved sanction to allow mitigation.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• Report serious misconduct of others