Bethany Sarah Reay

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

Bethany Sarah Reay, a solicitor at JMW Solicitors LLP, admitted six allegations of misconduct relating to her conduct of personal injury/clinical negligence claims for four clients (Mr RB, Mr AM, Mr DS, Mrs L) over the period 2013-2017. She made untrue and misleading statements to clients and a litigation opponent about the progress of claims, including claims that had not been served or had lapsed, failed to issue/serve proceedings, falsely represented that experts and counsel had been instructed, and agreed to discontinue Mrs L's proceedings without her knowledge or consent. She admitted her conduct was dishonest (dishonesty admitted on allegations 2.1-2.5). The Tribunal found a serious case of numerous incidents of dishonest conduct over a significant period with no exceptional circumstances justifying a lesser sanction. Mitigation included an anxiety disorder, excessive workload and lack of support from her firm, but this did not amount to exceptional circumstances. Struck off and ordered to pay costs of GBP 3,800.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• No conflict between current clients
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty (expressly admitted and found)
• Numerous incidents of misconduct over an extended period of approximately four years
• Misleading statements made to clients who trusted her to be truthful, and to a litigation opponent
• Discontinued a client's claim without her knowledge or consent

Mitigating factors:

• Suffering from an anxiety disorder while employed, of which the firm was aware
• Unable to cope with workload and offered little support by the firm; working very long hours
• Felt intimidated/threatened by clients unwilling to accept their claims could not proceed
• No longer practising or involved in SRA-regulated work and does not intend to practise again