David Santiago Morales

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

The attorney, David Morales, had carriage of sale of land and received payments totaling JMD 190,000 from the Complainant between July 2005 and July 2006. He did not stamp the agreement for sale and refunded the sum without interest in October 2006. He failed to establish that the money was held in a client's trust account or that he accounted for interest, amounting to professional misconduct. He did not respond or appear despite proper service. The Panel ordered restitution of JMD 19,975.91 in interest plus JMD 5,000 costs. No express finding of dishonesty was made.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money
• Account for interest on client money
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• No response or appearance by the attorney despite proper service

Mitigating factors:

• The sum of $190,000 was refunded to the Complainant in October 2006