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Berwick, John Patrick

JurisdictionAustralia — New South Wales
BodyOffice of the Legal Services Commissioner (NSW) (OLSC)
Professionbarrister
Case number[2016] NSWCATOD 81
Date23-Jun-2016
HearingNSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal - Occupational Division
OutcomeCosts Reprimand Undertaking, to be filed in the Tribunal, that he will not apply for a practising certificate as a barrister or as a solicitor in any jurisdiction at any time in the future Ordered to pay compensation in the amount of $25,000 (NSWCATOD 06.09.2017) $0.00 Proceedings Instituted

Allegation / charges

<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Professional Misconduct:</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Practitioner received two payments of trust money from his (then) client in June and July 2012 in contravention of section 252 LPA 2004 by depositing those monies into a mortgage account before completing the work for which moneys had been paid in advance and issuing a bill</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct:</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(i) Failed to advise the client of deficiencies in the pleadings</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(ii) Failed to make himself available for conferences, failed to provide submissions and failed to appear at the hearing;</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(iii) Delayed in paying an order for costs he was ordered to pay personally;</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(iv) Delayed in providing an itemised bill to the client despite numerous requests for same;</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(v) Claimed in an itemised bill an entitlement to be paid on the basis of time-based charging in circumstances where he had not a record of the work performed; and</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(vi) Claimed an entitlement to be paid for 44.75 hours of work in one day</span></p> — Professional Misconduct and Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct

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

SanctionOther
Dishonesty foundNo

Practitioner found guilty of professional misconduct for mishandling trust money (contravening s252 LPA 2004 by depositing client payments into a mortgage account before completing work and issuing a bill), and of unsatisfactory professional conduct on six grounds relating to failures in client service, delays, and improper billing including claiming 44.75 hours of work in a single day. No express finding of dishonesty and no sanction stated in the provided text.

Duties found breached:

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]

Duties engaged

Documents

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Source: https://portal.olsc.nsw.gov.au/dasearchbn/daresultdetail?id=4f2d510a-b733-eb11-bf74-000d3ad1941e