Samantha Jayne Dyson

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

The Respondent, a solicitor at Plexus Legal LLP, caused/allowed a misleading witness statement (with a signed statement of truth) to be filed with the court on or around 4 November 2021, and following a hearing on 8 November 2021 failed to inform her client (Council B) and their insurer (Company A), and failed to inform the Firm, that the client's defence and counterclaim had been struck out for non-compliance with an Unless Order. She admitted all allegations. An original allegation of dishonesty (Principle 4) was withdrawn by the SRA and the Tribunal was satisfied it was properly withdrawn, the employer's investigation having concluded she had not been dishonest. The matter was resolved by Agreed Outcome on the papers: 12-month suspension plus agreed costs of £2,469.17.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No conflict between current clients
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Recklessness
• Risk that the court would be misled by her witness statement
• Misled the firm's client by not telling them about the strike out of the client's defence

Mitigating factors:

• Relatively inexperienced as a solicitor
• Confusion caused in part by administrative errors not of her making
• Genuine insight, admitted misconduct and expressed deep regret