Decision record
PETER CHRISTISON NEIL
Allegation / charges
Professional Misconduct and conditions imposed
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
Perth sole practitioner Peter Christison Neil was found by the WA State Administrative Tribunal to have engaged in professional misconduct on two counts: consistently failing to provide any legal advice required under his retainer with client JL (regarding a property dispute, caveat and alleged business partnership) despite repeated requests, and rendering invoices for work he had not performed. Mr Neil did not attend the hearing despite numerous accommodations for his health issues. No dishonesty was found. The Tribunal imposed a $5,000 fine, a 12-month supervision condition on his practising certificate, and ordered him to pay the Committee's costs of $10,218.90. The Tribunal noted his complete lack of insight and remorse.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Failure to show any remorse or insight into misconduct
- Continued baseless attacks on the Committee's staff
- Attempted to dispute findings in penalty submissions rather than accept wrongdoing
- Fundamental misunderstanding of obligations despite long years in the profession
- Conduct continued throughout the retainer (mid-August 2013 to January 2014), not isolated
- Took client's limited means as a basis for not advancing her interests
Mitigating factors:
- No prior disciplinary history
- Conduct not of sufficient seriousness to warrant suspension or striking off
- No dishonesty found