John McLanachan

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

Barrister John McLanachan, called 1980, admitted 7 charges of professional misconduct arising from his conduct of 3 immigration judicial review cases before the Upper Tribunal in 2019, including recklessly misleading the court, wasting court time, handing up selective authority extracts, and providing incompetent/incoherent work. The charges related to his chaotic chambers and reliance on an individual (SH) whose status he failed to verify. No dishonesty was alleged or found; the most serious charges involved reckless misleading of the court. The Tribunal found Group F charges (misleading) warranted disbarment as the only just sanction, and Group G charges collectively also warranted disbarment given the prolonged period of incompetence posing risk to administration of justice. The Respondent was disbarred and ordered to pay £3,510 costs. He actively sought disbarment, but the Tribunal reached its decision independently.

Duties found breached:

• Disclose adverse law to the court
• Avoid wasting the court's time
• Proper basis for allegations
• No improper communication with the court
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Barrister of many years' experience

Mitigating factors:

• No previous findings of misconduct
• Admitted the charges, avoiding a contested hearing
• Ill health over the past few years
• No intention to return to practice