Lesley Dixon

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

Lesley Dixon, a solicitor's clerk at Oxley & Coward, forged the signatures of her divorce client and an assistant solicitor on an affidavit and filed it with the Doncaster County Court rather than arranging for it to be properly sworn. She was dismissed by her firm. The Tribunal found the uncontested allegation substantiated and made a Section 43(2) order restricting her employment by solicitors without Law Society permission, and ordered her to pay costs of £1,351.25. The Tribunal expressed sympathy, noting she acted out of character under overwhelming workload pressure and a difficult client, but held no pressure could excuse forgery and misleading the court. No express finding of dishonesty was recorded.

Duties found breached:

• Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience
• Advise objectively, not a mere conduit

Aggravating factors:

• Deceived the court, the client and another party in the proceedings
• Forged signatures of both her client and another solicitor
• Caused a subsequent court appointment to resolve difficulties

Mitigating factors:

• Full and frank explanation and apology
• Isolated incident, out of character
• Under extreme workload pressure following office move and staff departures
• Dealt with an exceptionally difficult and demanding client
• Lack of supervision/monitoring by employing firm
• Personal and financial hardship, drop in salary after losing legal employment