Alastair James McGregor Gilfillan

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

The Respondent, an experienced litigation solicitor, was found to have signed a List of Documents in his client's name without her knowledge or consent (Allegation 1.1), allowed a personal injury claim to proceed without a properly arguable basis for the damages claimed (Allegation 1.2), and used the client's signature copied from an earlier document onto a witness statement dated 1 September 2016 that she had not seen or approved (Allegation 1.3). All three allegations were proved, with express findings of dishonesty on Allegations 1.1 and 1.3 applying the Ivey test. Although the Tribunal accepted he had no personal motivation and never intended to act dishonestly (acting under work pressure to meet court deadlines), it found his culpability high and no exceptional circumstances under SRA v Sharma. He was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs of £9,000 (reduced from £14,239.50).

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead the court
• Avoid wasting the court's time
• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Act in the client's best interests
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Acted dishonestly on two occasions inserting client's signature on litigation documents
• Conduct deliberate and repeated
• Conduct continued over a number of months without rectification
• Ought reasonably to have known conduct breached obligations to protect public and reputation of profession

Mitigating factors:

• Single episode involving one file in an otherwise unblemished 23-year career
• Cooperated with regulator and proceedings
• Accepted facts and showed some insight
• Made early and open admissions on all matters save dishonesty
• No personal motivation or gain