Rachael Catherine Worthington

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

Rachael Catherine Worthington, a solicitor at Irwin Mitchell LLP, admitted that across four probate/will dispute matters (Clients A-F) between 2020 and 2021 she knowingly provided false and misleading information to clients, insurers and other solicitors, falsely claiming claims/applications had been issued or served when they had not, and concealing an adverse costs order. She admitted dishonesty (Ivey test), lack of integrity, and breaches of Principles 2, 4 and 5 and paragraphs 1.4 and 7.11 of the Code. The Tribunal approved an agreed outcome, finding the misconduct serious and striking her off the Roll, with costs of £3,500. Despite significant personal mitigation (inadequate supervision, excessive workload, mental health crisis), strike-off was the only appropriate sanction given the dishonesty.

Duties found breached:

• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
• Honesty
• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Misconduct motivated by a wish to cover up numerous failures to carry out clients' instructions
• Misconduct was planned and repeated over an extended period
• Breach of position of trust in respect of each affected client
• Direct control of and responsibility for her acts of misconduct
• Clients and insurers misled; clients suffered financial loss including liability for another party's costs
• Deleted emails and failed to save documents to the firm's case management system

Mitigating factors:

• Newly qualified solicitor with inadequate supervision
• Excessive workload and pressure (314% of chargeable target)
• Serious mental health issues and suicidal ideation at the time
• Bullying and reduction in pay during the pandemic while pregnant
• No financial gain or fraudulent motive
• Early admissions and full cooperation with the SRA investigation
• Left the profession and did not intend to return