Georgette May Scott

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

Attorney Georgette Scott was retained to sell a client's apartment for J$2.2 million. She received the proceeds but her cheque to the client for $2,105,272.41 was dishonoured, and she failed to make it good, leaving $750,000 outstanding. The Disciplinary Committee found she had used the client's funds for her own/others' benefit and expressly found she acted dishonestly, rejecting her claims of mental illness. She was struck off, ordered to make restitution of $750,000 with 12% interest and pay $50,000 costs. The Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal on grounds of procedural irregularity (refusal to allow withdrawal of complaint), bias, inadequate consideration of medical evidence, and excessive sanction, affirming the strike-off and awarding costs of the appeal to the respondent.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Misappropriated proceeds of sale of client's property entrusted to her
• Dishonoured cheque issued to client never made good despite promises
• Client had paid her costs of $95,000 in advance
• Admitted similar problems with funds belonging to other clients
• Failure to account for $750,000 (balance plus interest)

Mitigating factors:

• Claimed mental illness/reactive depression supported by psychiatrist's report (rejected - no credible evidence linking it to conduct in 2004/2005)
• Alleged history of paternal abuse causing financial difficulties (rejected as not contributing to misappropriation)
• Made some restitution/partial repayment during proceedings (held not to stay the tribunal's hand)