Sean O’Neil Kinghorn

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

The Complainant retained the Attorney following a 2008 motor vehicle accident. The Attorney and Complainant made repeated but futile attempts to obtain a medical report from Spanish Town Hospital, which had lost the records; the report only emerged in late 2016, after the claim became statute barred on 16 February 2014. The Panel found the Attorney never advised the Complainant before the limitation deadline that his claim was about to become statute barred, and failed to explore reasonable alternate steps (e.g., filing to preserve the cause of action with available documents/X-rays, or invoking CPR extension provisions) to protect the client's interest. The Attorney was found guilty of professional misconduct for breaching Canons IV(r) and IV(s). No express finding of dishonesty was made. He was fined J$2,000,000 (to be paid to the Complainant) and ordered to pay J$100,000 costs.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Failure was significantly to the Complainant's detriment, resulting in loss of his right of action
• Attorney admitted he chose not to pursue a claim against the hospital/Government because he considered the client 'troublesome'