Rajpal Singh Ahluwalia

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

Rajpal Singh Ahluwalia, an assistant solicitor at Clyde & Co handling insurance litigation, mishandled a defence to a £500,000 claim, allowing a default judgment to be entered on 14 May 2013 and failing to inform the client or set it aside promptly. The Tribunal found dishonesty proved in respect of a misleading email report to the client (1.1), a misleading email to the broker (1.2), and an untrue letter to opposing solicitors dated 28 February 2014 (part of 1.5), plus lack of integrity in failing to keep the client informed (1.6). Allegations 1.3 and 1.4 (signing statements of truth) were not proved. Allegations 1.7 and 1.8 (failure to file the defence in time and failure to set aside the judgment) were admitted and proved. The Tribunal found no exceptional circumstances to avoid striking off given the findings of dishonesty. The Respondent was struck off the Roll and ordered to pay costs assessed at £41,251.10 (reduced from the £46,293 claimed).

Duties found breached:

• Not mislead the court
• Proper basis for allegations
• Not mislead third parties or opponents

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty was found proved
• The misconduct occurred over a period of time
• The Respondent had acted to conceal his inactivity

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary findings
• Testimonials showed he was highly regarded and the supervisory partner endorsed his 'fully effective' moderation rating
• The misconduct related to only one case
• Partial admissions were made
• Personal mitigation including ill health (his own surgery and his wife's) and loss of a family member
• Stress at work and overwork