Keith A. Jarrett

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

Joscelyn Massop complained that his attorney, Keith Jarrett, retained in 2006 to defend a negligence claim arising from a motor vehicle accident, mishandled his case. The attorney failed to follow up after sending another lawyer to a case management conference, resulting in a default judgment being entered against the complainant on 14 January 2008. He failed to apply promptly to set it aside despite service on 23 January 2008, did not plead the defective brakes of the other vehicle, and failed to keep the client informed. The Disciplinary Committee preferred the complainant's evidence, relied on the Court of Appeal judgment in Massop v Morrison [2012] JMCA Civ 56, and found the attorney guilty of inexcusable and deplorable negligence and of failing to provide information, in breach of Canons IV(r) and (s), constituting professional misconduct. The panel directed a separate sanction hearing; no sanction was imposed in this decision. No finding of dishonesty was made.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• Keep client informed and respond promptly
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Three-year period of inactivity between filing the defence and the attorney becoming aware of the matter's status
• Allowed a default judgment to be entered against the client through failure to follow up
• Failed to apply promptly to set aside the default judgment despite proper service
• Conduct was deleterious to the client, who faced judgment of over $8,000,000