Alan Alexander Slessor Wilson

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

The Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal considered a complaint against solicitor Alan Alexander Slessor Wilson. In 2014, a will was signed but the witness (his secretary) failed to sign at the time, though she typed the testing clause. In 2019, after discovering the omission, the Respondent asked the now-retired secretary to add her signature, then certified a copy of the will bearing the witness signature as a true copy when the original lacked it. The Tribunal found him NOT guilty of professional misconduct on the first charge (failure to act with competence and diligence in 2014 supervision), holding it was a single error that could be made by a competent solicitor. On the second charge, the Tribunal found him guilty of professional misconduct for breaching Rule B1.2 by failing to act with integrity. The Tribunal expressly found that the Respondent did NOT act dishonestly, accepting he was a credible witness who believed he was curing a defect without intent to deceive. He was censured, fined £1,000, and found liable for 66% of expenses.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty

Aggravating factors:

• Certified copy documents are relied upon to be true copies, and the Respondent knew the document was not a true copy of the original
• By his own evidence he was aware of the significance of the absence of the witness's signature
• Conduct likely to bring the profession into disrepute

Mitigating factors:

• No previous conduct findings
• Conduct related to a single event
• Remorse and contrition expressed
• Some insight into his conduct
• Cooperated with the Law Society and Tribunal; provided a Joint Minute
• No obvious damage to the public
• Had offered to plead guilty if dishonesty were deleted from the Complaint