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Howard A. Lettman

JurisdictionJamaica
BodyGeneral Legal Council — Disciplinary Committee (GLC)
Professionattorney
Case number224 of 2001
DateDecember 21, 2005
OutcomeFined/Conditional Suspension

Allegation / charges

Fined/Conditional Suspension | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered December 21, 2005. View PDF DECISION OF THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL LEGAL COUNCILComplaint #224/2001 IN THE MATTER OF UNA CAMPBELL AGAINST THE ATTORNEY, HOWARD LETTMAN AND IN THE MATTER OF …

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

SanctionFine
FineJMD 800,000
CostsJMD 60,000
Dishonesty foundNo

The Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council found that attorney Howard Lettman was retained by complainant Una Campbell following a 1993 motor vehicle accident in which she was an injured passenger, but failed to prosecute her case, commenced no legal action so that the claim became statute-barred, failed to keep her informed, and misled her about the progress of the matter. The Committee found inexcusable negligence and neglect, compounded by attempts to mislead the client, but made no express finding of dishonesty. He was fined JMD 800,000 (payable to the complainant as part damages) and ordered to pay JMD 60,000 costs, with a one-year suspension to take effect if he failed to comply with the payment conditions.

Duties found breached:

Aggravating factors:

  • Misconduct compounded by the attorney's attempts to mislead the complainant about the progress of her matter
  • Client's civil action became statute-barred so no recovery possible
  • Attorney absent and unrepresented at resumed hearing
  • Promised compensation never materialized

Mitigating factors:

  • Before the tribunal the attorney did not seek to mislead but stated an intent to compensate the complainant
  • Did not challenge the complainant's evidence and proposed an independent assessment of damages

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_suspension_months=12"]

Duties engaged

Other decisions involving this respondent

  • 116 of 2015 2020-02-15 · GLC · Jamaica · Guilty of Professional Misconduct, Struck off
  • 57 of 2008 2020-01-25 · GLC · Jamaica · Struck off, Restitution ordered
  • 212 of 2017 2019-11-23 · GLC · Jamaica · Struck off
  • 57 of 2008 2019-11-23 · GLC · Jamaica · Guilty of Professional Misconduct
  • 215 of 2017 2019-11-13 · GLC · Jamaica · Struck off, Restitution Ordered
  • 215 of 2017 2019-07-20 · GLC · Jamaica · Guilty of Professional Misconduct
  • 16 of 2016 2019-06-22 · GLC · Jamaica · Suspended until Restitution Complete
  • 212 of 2017 2019-06-01 · GLC · Jamaica · Guilty of Professional Misconduct
  • 16 of 2016 2019-05-25 · GLC · Jamaica · Guilty of Professional Misconduct
  • 124 of 2015 2019-03-09 · GLC · Jamaica · Guilty of Professional Misconduct

Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.

Documents

Source: https://www.generallegalcouncil.org/judgement/howard-a-lettman-complaint-no-224-of-2001/