Kirit Chhagan Pankhania

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

Sole practitioner Kirit Chhagan Pankhania was found to have dishonestly altered a solicitors' letter (changing a £30,000 costs settlement to £20,000 and deleting payment terms) and sent the false letter to both his client and the Legal Complaints Service. He also signed Land Registry Form RX3 without his client's authority, failed to follow instructions, failed to act in the client's best interests, failed to provide adequate costs information and a good standard of service. The Tribunal applied the Twinsectra test and found dishonesty proved. Medical evidence offered in mitigation was found unconvincing and inconsistent. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay agreed costs of £17,000.

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead the court
• Avoid wasting the court's time
• Honesty
• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• Act in the client's best interests
• Handle inadvertently received material
• Competence
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Deliberate alteration of figure from £30,000 to £20,000 and deletion of sentence to conceal settlement terms
• Concealed from client that he had signed Form RX3 on his behalf
• Conduct concerned a client complaint and deception of the regulator (Legal Complaints Service)

Mitigating factors:

• 22 years of practice with unblemished reputation
• Numerous positive references
• Asserted health problems (though Tribunal found medical evidence unconvincing)
• Office flooding difficulties
• Achieved a favourable capital settlement (£60,000) for client