Howard A. Lettman

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

The attorney acted for the vendor and had carriage of sale in a land purchase by the complainant. She paid him $834,950 (deposit, half costs, stamp duty and registration fees) and incurred further expenses of about $702,000. The attorney failed to stamp the agreement and failed to send the certificate of title and other documents to her lender (Victoria Mutual Building Society) despite repeated requests, causing the lender to cancel her loan offer and preventing completion of the purchase. He also failed to return her deposit. The panel found him guilty of professional misconduct and in breach of Canon 1(b), accepting the complainant as a witness of truth. No express finding of dishonesty was made. The matter was adjourned to 25 September 2019 for submissions on mitigation; no sanction, fine, or costs had yet been imposed in this decision.

Duties found breached:

• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession