John Charles Arnold

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

John Charles Arnold, a sole principal admitted in 1983, was found guilty of conduct unbefitting a solicitor for failing to respond to Law Society correspondence, failing to notify his Reading practice address and the closure of his practices, and abandoning his practice without proper closure arrangements. The Tribunal found no dishonesty, concluding he had 'given up the ghost', but regarded the failures as extremely serious. He was suspended indefinitely and ordered to pay costs of £8,004.44.

Duties found breached:

• Continuity and handover of representation
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
• No improper solicitation or touting

Aggravating factors:

• Extremely serious failures leaving clients unrepresented and inconvenienced
• Uncooperative; did not participate in proceedings
• Failure caused inconvenience to staff, landlord, DX service and creditors
• Staff not paid; offices boarded up; withheld DX post

Mitigating factors:

• No dishonesty found by the Tribunal