Maurice Frankson

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

The Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council found respondent attorney Maurice Frankson guilty of professional misconduct for failing to file accountant's reports or declarations for 2014-2017, in breach of Regulations 16(1) and 17 of the Legal Profession (Accounts and Records) Regulations 1999. Applying Court of Appeal precedents (Melhado and Robins), the Committee declined to strike him off given his contrition, cooperation and attendance, instead imposing a 24-month suspension (or until satisfactory reports are filed, whichever is sooner), a fine of JMD 200,000 (JMD 50,000 per year), and costs of JMD 50,000. No finding of dishonesty was made.

Duties found breached:

• Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• Not misrepresent regulated status

Aggravating factors:

• Failure to comply for four consecutive years
• Breach remained unrectified at the date of the sanction hearing

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent present at all hearing dates
• Respondent was penitent and respectful to the Committee
• Respondent accepted responsibility and offered no excuse
• Respondent undertook to file the outstanding reports if given time

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_suspension_months=24"]