STEPHEN JOHN BROWNE

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

The Legal Practitioners Complaints Committee alleged solicitor Stephen Browne's personal injury advertisements breached s 17 of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA) and were misleading. The Tribunal held it had jurisdiction (per s 17(3)) but found no breach of s 17 because the advertisements were expressly directed to persons who had already made a claim. It found the phrase 'your first consultation is free' was not misleading, but the phrase 'no compensation = no legal fees' was misleading (implying no liability for any fees rather than only the practitioner's own fees), amounting to unprofessional conduct. No dishonesty was found. Penalty was reserved for later hearing.

Duties found breached:

• Truthful, non-misleading advertising

Mitigating factors:

• Took advice from three counsel including eminent senior counsel regarding compliance with s 17
• Had regard to Law Society guidelines and sought to meet concerns
• Responded appropriately when concerns were raised by the Committee
• Later modified advertisement and adopted policy to pay disbursements/adverse costs himself