MARTIN LEE SEGLER

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

Martin Lee Segler, a WA legal practitioner, wrote a letter on his professional letterhead to a real estate agent (for his former landlord Mr Dortch) after partially winning residential tenancy proceedings in which he represented himself. The letter demanded payment of the judgment sum one day earlier than the Magistrate's seven-day order allowed, threatening an enforcement writ, and threatened to personally refer the landlord to the DPP with a recommendation for a perjury indictment. The Tribunal found the enforcement threat inappropriate and unjustified and the perjury threat entirely without foundation and designed to cause distress, amounting to unprofessional conduct. No express finding of dishonesty was made. In a supplementary decision, the Tribunal reprimanded Segler, fined him $2,500 (less than the $5,000-$6,000 sought), and ordered costs of $4,500, noting his lack of insight and prior disciplinary history.

Duties found breached:

• Disclose adverse law to the court
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Threat of criminal proceedings made without foundation, intended to cause distress and fear
• Use of professional letterhead in a personal dispute to lend weight to threats
• Lack of insight and continued attempts to justify conduct during hearing and in penalty submissions
• Prior disciplinary history - previously found guilty of unprofessional conduct on two occasions across six matters (2001 and 2003)
• Over 28 years in practice, principally in criminal law, should have known no reasonable prospect of indictment

Mitigating factors:

• Mr Dortch suffered no pecuniary loss
• No evidence adduced that Mr Dortch actually suffered distress
• Segler and his wife were the aggrieved and successful parties in the underlying dispute
• Assurance offered that he would not engage in similar conduct again