Alastair James McGregor Gilfillan

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

Respondent, an experienced litigation solicitor, was found to have signed a client's List of Documents without her knowledge or consent (Allegation 1.1), failed to limit a personal injury claim to properly recoverable damages despite knowing part of the vehicle damage was caused by a separate accident (Allegation 1.2), and copied his client's signature onto a witness statement dated 1 September 2016 sent to court giving the misleading impression she had approved it (Allegation 1.3). The Tribunal found dishonesty proved in Allegations 1.1 and 1.3 applying the Ivey test. Although the Respondent had no personal gain and acted under pressure to meet court deadlines, the Tribunal found no exceptional circumstances under SRA v Sharma and struck him off the Roll, ordering costs of £9,000 (reduced from £14,239.50).

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead the court
• No improper communication with the court
• No taking unfair advantage
• 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 by inserting client's signature on litigation documents
• Conduct was deliberate and repeated
• Conduct continued over a number of months without rectification
• Aware of issue around client's honesty following conversation with counsel
• 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 career of 23 years
• Cooperated with regulator and proceedings
• Accepted facts and showed some insight
• Made early and open admissions save on dishonesty
• No personal motivation or gain