Rajan Radia

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

Rajan Radia, admitted 1995, fabricated a letter purportedly dated 20th October 1997 and altered attendance notes to defend against client complaints of negligence/poor advice. He relied on these documents in correspondence with his client and, in a statement of truth, represented them as genuine to the OSS, providing an 18-page false explanation and seeking to discredit his former client Mr R. The Tribunal found dishonesty and conscious impropriety, rejecting the argument that the conduct was an isolated aberration since he perpetuated the lie 15 months later. Despite mitigation (youth, inexperience, emotional turmoil, difficult childhood, eventual confession, employer support, financial losses), the Tribunal struck him off and ordered costs of £2,650 to protect the public and the profession's reputation.

Duties found breached:

• Handle inadvertently received material
• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Perpetuated the lie 15 months later when he had time to reflect, indicating it was not an isolated aberration
• Lied to his professional body (OSS) in a statement of truth
• Sought to discredit his former client Mr R, including alleging suppression of documents
• Conduct at the serious end of the scale involving conscious impropriety
• Provided a lengthy (18-page) fabricated and untrue explanation

Mitigating factors:

• Young and relatively inexperienced solicitor at the time
• Eventually made a clean breast of things to employers, wife and the OSS
• Deeply contrite, ashamed and apologetic
• Suffering considerable emotional turmoil and difficult family/childhood history and work pressures
• Strong support and testimonials from employers and colleagues; retained in employment
• Suffered considerable financial outlay (paid insurance excess, settled unpaid costs, legal representation costs)