Mia Branchette
Allegation / charges
Breaches
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Mia Branchette, a solicitor at Capsticks Solicitors LLP, made untrue and misleading statements over a 9-month period to her client CHS about the progress of a debt recovery matter, falsely claiming a statutory demand had been served, a letter before action sent, and court proceedings issued, when no such steps had been taken. She also misled her employer (DF and SW) about the progress and the existence of documents when the matter was investigated, and falsely blamed a former colleague (Solicitor X) who was not even employed at the relevant times. The Tribunal proceeded in her absence, found allegations 1.1 and 1.2 proved including express dishonesty, and ordered her struck off the Roll with costs of £5,770.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Proven dishonesty
- Deliberate, calculated and repeated conduct over a period of time
- Concealed failings through numerous false and misleading statements
- Blamed a former colleague for her own failings
- Suggested client did not understand the process when she knew the issues were caused by her inaction
- Suggested the Firm failed to find documents that she knew did not exist
- Caused harm to the client by preventing recovery of monies owed