Pravin Jugdaohsingh
Allegation / charges
Breaches, Code of Conduct for Solicitors, REL's & RFL's 2019, Dishonesty, Lack of Integrity, SRA Principles 2019
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Respondent, a solicitor at RHJ Devonshire Limited, signed a statement of costs (form N260) on 4 December 2019 to be filed with the Business and Property Court which he knew included a claim for time he had not worked (he presented Ms Khosla's work as his own Grade A fees). He then gave untruthful evidence to an arbitrator on 18 October 2021 about his involvement, claiming he had personally done 16 hours of work. He admitted the allegations, including dishonesty. The Tribunal found dishonesty was established and that strike off was the only appropriate sanction, with no exceptional circumstances. The matter was dealt with by Agreed Outcome. He was struck off and ordered to pay agreed costs of £10,650.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Untruthful and material statements made to the High Court and to an Arbitrator
- Conduct involved dishonesty to officers of the court and tribunal
- Potential detriment to the Bank and KTS Legal Ltd
Mitigating factors:
- Full admissions made (albeit at a late stage)
- Full and frank co-operation with the SRA investigation
- No greed or desire for additional profit and no evidence of actual loss (non-agreed mitigation)
- Two isolated incidents against otherwise unblemished good character (non-agreed mitigation)
- Context of difficult litigation with KTS Legal Ltd and personal exhaustion / difficult family life (non-agreed mitigation)
Codes & rules applied
Duties engaged
- Act only on proper, lawful instructions
- Advise on alternatives, settlement and outcome
- Avoid wasting the court's time
- Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience
- Client-care and engagement terms
- Client confidentiality
- Competence
- Complaints procedure and handling
- Comply with and respect court orders
- Comply with rules of foreign jurisdictions
- Continuity and handover of representation
- Cooperate openly with regulators
- Costs and fee transparency to client
- Diligence and timeliness
- Disclose adverse law to the court
- Disclose material information to client
- Disclose referrals, commissions and benefits
- Fair dealing with unrepresented parties
- Fair, reasonable and lawful fees
- Full disclosure on ex parte applications
- Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
- Handle inadvertently received material
- Hold a current practising certificate
- Honour professional undertakings
- Keep client informed and respond promptly
- Maintain competence and CPD
- Manage conflict arising mid-matter
- No abuse of process or coercive powers
- No acting against a former client
- No baseless or threatened misconduct report
- No conflict between current clients
- No direct dealing with represented party
- No improper benefit, loan or bequest
- No improper communication with the court
- No improper fee-sharing or partnership
- No improper questioning of witnesses
- No improper solicitation or touting
- Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
- No obstruction or victimisation of reporters
- No own-interest conflict
- No payments to witnesses on evidence
- No personal opinion or familiarity with court
- No prejudicial publicity for pending cases
- No standing bail or surety for client
- No taking unfair advantage
- No tampering with or coaching witnesses
- Not mislead the court
- Not mislead third parties or opponents
- Not misrepresent regulated status
- Pay instructed practitioners and agents
- Professional indemnity insurance
- Proper basis for allegations
- Proper termination and return of instructions
- Prosecutorial duty of disclosure
- Prosecutorial fairness and impartiality
- Protect capacity and vulnerable clients
- Protect legal professional privilege
- Report serious misconduct of others
- Safeguard documents and limit liens
- Self-report to the regulator
- Truthful, non-misleading advertising