Decision record
Sean Garvin Moses Osbourne
Appeals and appellate references
- Appellate document — relationship to this matter unverified: Gresford Jones v The General Legal Council (ex parte Owen Ferron) Miscellaneous Appeal No. 22/2002 (delivered March 18, 2005)
“Unverified” means the upstream page linked an appellate judgment but did not preserve enough context to prove that it was an appeal in this matter.
Allegation / charges
Guilty of Professional Misconduct | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered September 25, 2023 || Reprimanded, Restitution ordered, Fined | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered October 09, 2023 || Formal Order View PDF DECISION OF THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL LEGAL …
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Respondent attorney was retained by the Complainant for three successive property purchase transactions (Mountain View, Ebony Vale, Hampton Green), none of which completed. The Complainant paid $547,500.00 (a $100,000 retainer plus $447,500 deposit and half costs) for the Ebony Vale transaction. When the transactions failed and the Complainant demanded her money back, the Respondent refused and transferred the entire sum from his trust account to his business account as fees. The Panel found there was no agreement on fees for Ebony Vale or Hampton Green, and that the Respondent could not unilaterally set fees and deduct them from trust monies; at most he could claim a lien over the $100,000 retainer. The proper course was to submit a bill for taxation under s.22 of the Legal Profession Act. The Panel found the complaint of failure to account (Canon VII(b)(ii)) proved beyond reasonable doubt and found the Respondent guilty of professional misconduct. No express finding of dishonesty was made. Two of the three original complaints had been dismissed on a no-case submission. Sanction was deferred to a later mitigation hearing.
Duties found breached:
Duties engaged
Other decisions involving this respondent
Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.
Documents
Source: https://www.generallegalcouncil.org/judgement/sean-garvin-moses-osbourne-complaint-no-97-of-2021/