Catriona Macbeth

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

Catriona Macbeth, admitted 1991, was an assistant solicitor at Thomson, Snell & Passmore. After her resignation, the firm referred 19 of her matters to insurers; six raised misconduct issues including claims struck out for missed time limits, failures regarding funding/Legal Aid, failures to record meetings, failure to notify a client of strike out, failure to take instructions, failures to respond to correspondence, and removal of a paragraph from a head of loss schedule without client authority. She also failed to respond to The Law Society's correspondence. The Tribunal found both allegations substantiated. The Applicant expressly did not allege taking unfair advantage, and there was no express finding of dishonesty. She was suspended indefinitely and ordered to pay costs of £1,786.87.

Duties found breached:

• Keep client informed and respond promptly
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Removed a paragraph from a head of loss schedule without the client's authority
• Multiple client matters affected including claims struck out for failure to comply with time limits
• Played no part in the proceedings and offered no explanation