Donald R. Bernard

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

The complainant retained the respondent attorney to handle his purchase of land. The complainant paid the respondent sums totaling the balance purchase price, costs and fees, but the respondent failed to pay any of it over to the vendor's attorneys, causing the complainant to incur interest and additional costs. The respondent eventually paid over $1,251,005.00 but withheld $242,990.00 (claimed for stamp duty/transfer tax/registration), which he did not use for that purpose and converted to his own use. He refunded only $30,000.00. The panel found the charges of diversion of funds and failure to account proven beyond reasonable doubt, expressly found the respondent acted dishonestly, and found him guilty of professional misconduct. As he had already been struck off the Roll in another matter, the panel ordered restitution of $578,342.04 with 12% interest.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No improper use of client money
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonest misappropriation of client funds entrusted for a specific purpose
• Breach of fiduciary relationship of trust
• Failure to account to the client
• Failed to do work for which he was paid
• Such conduct described as increasingly prevalent and damaging to the profession's reputation

Mitigating factors:

• Made a partial refund of $30,000.00
• Admitted (impliedly) liability and offered to settle by installments (exhibit 16)