ANDREW PAUL SKERRITT

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

Andrew Paul Skerritt, a legal practitioner, admitted professional misconduct for sending a letter he knew was misleading to the State Administrative Tribunal regarding a scheduling conflict between a District Court trial and a SAT hearing. The Tribunal made an express finding that he acted dishonestly. The Complaints Committee sought his removal from the Roll, but the Tribunal declined, finding his mental illness (PTSD, depression, anxiety), though not the cause of his misconduct, formed part of the context, and having regard to strong character references and his admission. The Tribunal imposed a six-month suspension, a requirement to undergo medical treatment and counselling, a condition requiring a psychiatrist's report to the Legal Practice Board, and ordered costs of $4,784.50.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Letter was misleading in multiple respects
• Gratuitous nature of the misconduct (adjournment likely to have been granted anyway)
• Failure to correct the deception to the Tribunal
• Continued lack of insight, contrition and remorse

Mitigating factors:

• Mental illness (PTSD, Recurrent Episodic Depression and Anxiety) forming part of the context and circumstances, likely a contributory factor in failing to address scheduling conflict in a timely manner
• Single event of misleading conduct
• Nine strong character references
• Admission of the allegation and acceptance that his conduct constituted professional misconduct
• Relative inexperience (only four years' legal experience)