Michael Thompson

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

The Council of the Law Society of Scotland complained that solicitor Michael Thompson had unduly delayed and failed to fully implement a mandate to transfer a client's file to a new solicitor (Mr Canning) who required it to consider an urgent personal injury appeal with a 10 May 2018 deadline. Thompson sent about 90% of the file by email on 1 May 2018 and later sent a disc, but fifteen items relevant to the 2018 action were never forwarded. Applying the Sharp test, the Tribunal held that provision of 90% within days, and an attempted full compliance within just over a month (frustrated by an administrative error and mail confusion between two similarly-named firms), did not constitute a serious and reprehensible departure from proper standards. The Respondent was found not guilty of professional misconduct, though the Tribunal considered he may be guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and remitted the matter to the Law Society under Section 53ZA. No expenses were awarded. Publicity was ordered including the Respondent's and witnesses' names but not the Secondary Complainer.

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent provided approximately 90% of the file within 5 days (3 working days) of the mandate
• Attempted to comply with the mandate in just over a month
• Genuinely believed he had sent the complete file; incompleteness was an administrative error of which he was unaware
• File repeatedly 'bounced' between the two similarly-named firms due to mail mix-ups
• File was not necessary to lodge the appeal (appeal was lodged without the missing material)
• Respondent was contrite and accepted responsibility for the deficiencies
• Firm's mandate systems have since changed