Jeremy James Cram

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

Jeremy James Cram, a sole practitioner, was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal on 17 September 2018. He instructed three advocates (Mr A, Mr E, Ms F) via Faculty Services but failed to pay their fees, in some cases retaining monies paid to him by SLAB that were due to Counsel. He also repeatedly failed to respond to Faculty Services, the Dean of Faculty, and the Law Society's regulatory correspondence and Section 15/48 Notices, and failed to cooperate with the Financial Compliance Department's requests to inspect his books. The Tribunal expressly found his retention of SLAB monies dishonest and his refusal to provide records a breach of integrity. He was struck off the Roll and found liable in expenses. On 26 November 2018 the Tribunal ordered him to pay £5,000 compensation (statutory maximum) to the Secondary Complainer, Mr A, whose unpaid fees exceeded £12,000.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• Cooperate openly with regulators
• Self-report to the regulator
• Pay instructed practitioners and agents

Aggravating factors:

• Ongoing course of conduct over a long period
• Large number of transactions involving three different advocates
• Dishonest retention of SLAB monies intended for Counsel
• No apology to Counsel or the Law Society (at misconduct stage)
• Lack of remorse or insight
• Failed to take steps to remedy matters
• Risk of repetition and risk to the public
• Failed to keep and hand over records, preventing proper investigation

Mitigating factors:

• Clean disciplinary record
• At compensation stage, expressed sincere apologies including a personal apology to the Secondary Complainer
• Current impecunious financial circumstances (though not a bar to compensation)