SALLY ANNE GAUNT
JurisdictionAustralia — Western Australia
BodyLegal Practice Board of Western Australia (LPBWA)
Professionlawyer — 285 Hancock Street DOUBLEVIEW WA 6019
Case numberLegal Practitioners Complaints Committee v Gaunt [2005] WASAT 152
Date2 June 2005
HearingState Administrative Tribunal
OutcomeUnprofessional Conduct
Allegation / charges
Unprofessional Conduct
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
SanctionReprimand
FineAUD 1,000
CostsAUD 750
Dishonesty foundNo
The practitioner, acting for the executrix of an estate, wrote an intemperate three-page letter to an opposing solicitor containing improper threats against his client (threatening to use photographs of the client's 'frolics' unless he dropped his inheritance claim). The Tribunal found this constituted unprofessional conduct. The parties had proposed consent orders of a $1000 fine and $750 costs, but the Tribunal considered these inadequate and, with the practitioner's consent, added a reprimand to convey that such conduct was unacceptable. No finding of dishonesty was made.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- The threats appeared in the context of a three-page letter containing inappropriate, emotive and derogatory allegations (abuse, marital infidelity, prostitution)
- Conduct demonstrated a lack of understanding of the proper role of a lawyer and fell well short of expected standards
Mitigating factors:
- Practitioner admitted writing the letter and accepted it was inappropriate
- Letter written at a time when she was under stress and unwell
- Acknowledged being overborne by the executor and adopting that person's language
- Cooperated and consented to the outcome
- Financial position such that pecuniary penalty was a significant burden