John Alexander Churchill Sinclair
Allegation / charges
Fined | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered May 05, 2005. View PDF DECISION OF THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE In the matters of Complaints #179/97 and 174/97 LINDELL COHALL and ADASSA LAWRENCE, V. JOHN, SINCLAIR, an Attorney-at-Law AND In the matter of …
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Two complainants, passengers injured in a 1995 truck accident, retained attorney John Sinclair in 1996. He filed suits in 2001 but took no further steps (no default judgment entered) despite the defendant's appearance, citing fruitless negotiations with no written evidence. The Committee found him guilty of inexcusable and deplorable negligence. The attorney had paid the complainants from his own means (Lawrence J$165,000; Cohall J$200,000). He was fined J$100,000 per complainant (J$200,000 total), with J$90,000 of each fine directed to the complainants as part compensation, plus costs of J$5,000 to each complainant.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Long delay with no steps taken to pursue claims after defendant's appearance
- No adequate explanation offered for the delay
- Complainants were not informed of progress and received no compensation for years
Mitigating factors:
- Attorney made advances/payments to complainants from his own means
- Complainants can still pursue the action and seek default judgment
- Notice of Intention to Proceed filed in July 2002
Duties engaged
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