Femida Jamali

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

Femida Jamali, a personal injury solicitor at Slater and Gordon, misled and failed to adequately advise multiple clients (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) about their claims having been struck out, gave false explanations blaming the court, and falsely indicated applications to reinstate had been or would be made when they had not. The Tribunal found dishonesty proved on Allegations 1.1-1.4 (Ivey test) and breaches of Principles 2, 4, 5 and 6. For Allegation 1.5 (Clients G and H, claim issued out of time), the Tribunal found Principles 4, 5 and 6 breached but found dishonesty, recklessness and lack of integrity (Principle 2) not proved because she did not have a court document disposing of the claim and was not satisfied she knew it was statute barred. The hearing proceeded in the Respondent's absence. Finding no exceptional circumstances, the Tribunal struck her off the Roll and ordered costs of £36,000 (reduced from £42,750).

Duties found breached:

• Act in the client's best interests
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• No conflict between current clients
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Proper basis for allegations

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty
• Deliberate, calculated and repeated misconduct over approximately 18 months across several files
• Respondent knew she was in material breach of her obligations
• Motivation to cover her own errors and poor service
• 8 years' experience at start of misconduct
• Direct control as fee earner with conduct of the cases
• Harm caused to clients including loss of opportunity to reinstate claims

Mitigating factors:

• Previously unblemished career with no prior disciplinary findings