Joe Morgan
Allegation / charges
Breaches, Code of Conduct for Solicitors, REL's & RFL's 2019, SRA Principles 2019
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Joseph Morgan, sole director of Document Certifier Ltd (a non-SRA regulated firm operating via documentcertifier.com), certified documents as true copies of originals he had seen when he had only seen scanned/uploaded copies, not the originals (Allegation 1.1). He had previously entered into a Regulatory Settlement Agreement (RSA) dated 18 August 2022 admitting this conduct, but continued the same certification practice in breach of the RSA (Allegation 1.2) and continued to advertise/provide the certification service afterwards (Allegation 1.3). The Tribunal rejected his argument that an uploaded electronic scan was the 'original' and that AI verification substituted for sight of the original. All allegations were found proved. The Tribunal found breaches of Principles 2 and 5 and Code paragraphs 1.4, 7.2 and 7.3, including a finding that he lacked integrity. No express finding of dishonesty was made. He was struck off the Roll.
Duties found breached:
Codes & rules applied
Duties engaged
- Act only on proper, lawful instructions
- Advise on alternatives, settlement and outcome
- Avoid wasting the court's time
- Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience
- Client-care and engagement terms
- Client confidentiality
- Competence
- Complaints procedure and handling
- Comply with and respect court orders
- Comply with rules of foreign jurisdictions
- Continuity and handover of representation
- Cooperate openly with regulators
- Costs and fee transparency to client
- Diligence and timeliness
- Disclose adverse law to the court
- Disclose material information to client
- Disclose referrals, commissions and benefits
- Fair dealing with unrepresented parties
- Fair, reasonable and lawful fees
- Full disclosure on ex parte applications
- Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
- Handle inadvertently received material
- Hold a current practising certificate
- Honour professional undertakings
- Keep client informed and respond promptly
- Maintain competence and CPD
- Manage conflict arising mid-matter
- No abuse of process or coercive powers
- No acting against a former client
- No baseless or threatened misconduct report
- No conflict between current clients
- No direct dealing with represented party
- No improper benefit, loan or bequest
- No improper communication with the court
- No improper fee-sharing or partnership
- No improper questioning of witnesses
- No improper solicitation or touting
- Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
- No obstruction or victimisation of reporters
- No own-interest conflict
- No payments to witnesses on evidence
- No personal opinion or familiarity with court
- No prejudicial publicity for pending cases
- No standing bail or surety for client
- No taking unfair advantage
- No tampering with or coaching witnesses
- Not mislead the court
- Not mislead third parties or opponents
- Not misrepresent regulated status
- Pay instructed practitioners and agents
- Professional indemnity insurance
- Proper basis for allegations
- Proper termination and return of instructions
- Prosecutorial duty of disclosure
- Prosecutorial fairness and impartiality
- Protect capacity and vulnerable clients
- Protect legal professional privilege
- Report serious misconduct of others
- Safeguard documents and limit liens
- Self-report to the regulator
- Truthful, non-misleading advertising