Carlton H. Campbell

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

The Complainant retained the Attorney in 1996 to obtain a registered certificate of title for a parcel of land, paying fees totalling $17,500. The Attorney never applied for the title over ten years, preventing completion of the sale of the land (balance of $100,000 outstanding). He repeatedly failed to attend hearings. The panel found him guilty of professional misconduct under Canons IV(r) and (s), with no finding of dishonesty. He was ordered to return a Will, compensate the Complainant $100,000 plus interest, and pay costs of $15,000 to the Complainant and $20,000 to the Council.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• No improper communication with the court
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Failure to act for ten years in the matter
• Repeated failure to respond to notices and attend hearings
• Client's loss due to depreciation of outstanding balance of purchase price over the years

Mitigating factors:

• Attorney returned the original documents (conveyance and agreement) to the Complainant, enabling her to seek other legal assistance

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_costs_amount=35000"]