Richard D. Bonner

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

The Attorney, Richard Bonner, was found guilty of professional misconduct for breaches of Canons I(b) and VII(b) arising from his handling of the proceeds of a 2007 real property sale ($11,000,000), having acknowledged in a signed Statement of Account that $5,509,535 remained due to the Complainant and her siblings. The Attorney repeatedly failed to attend sanction hearings or provide mitigation evidence, citing medical illness, though his physician testified the condition would not have prevented him preparing documents or appearing via Skype. With no mitigation advanced, the Panel struck the Attorney's name off the Roll, ordered restitution of $5,509,535 with 4.5% interest from 4 October 2013, and ordered costs of $50,000. Although the decision discussed the principle that dishonesty invariably leads to striking off, the tribunal made no express finding of dishonesty.

Duties found breached:

• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Failure to attend or participate in sanction hearings despite directions
• Failure to file any affidavit evidence in mitigation
• Medical evidence indicated the condition would not have prevented preparing documents or attending by Skype
• Long-outstanding sums owed to clients since at least 2013