James Preece

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

James Stephen Preece, an unregistered barrister working as a case manager at MB Law, made an ex parte application in the Central Family Court on 13 September 2019, obtaining an order to move a child from the father to the mother (later discharged). The Tribunal found he made statements to the court that he knew were untrue or misleading (charges 1-3), acted recklessly (charges 4-6), made serious allegations about the father without proper basis, acting without integrity (charges 7-8), and repeatedly described himself as a 'criminal barrister' without qualification when only holding a limited right of audience (charges 9-11). The Tribunal made express findings of dishonesty on charges 1-3. Proceeding in his absence, the Tribunal disbarred him and ordered costs of £4,770 to the BSB.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• No improper communication with the court
• Honesty
• No conflict between current clients
• Firm governance, systems and compliance

Aggravating factors:

• Serious failure to act with integrity and honesty in submissions to the court at an ex parte hearing without notice to the other party
• Failure to refer the court to the last order governing arrangements for the child and to other important matters
• Harm to the 2.5-year-old child, moved between parents at short notice and then back
• Harm to the father, who was absent and unable to defend his position
• Potential harm to the reputation of the profession
• No regret shown and failure to engage with the Tribunal

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings
• Misconduct arose on a single occasion, not part of a wider course of conduct

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_costs_amount=4770"]