Franklyn S. Beckford

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

The Respondent attorney, Franklin Beckford, acted for Oscar Brown and negotiated a settlement of the Complainant Doretha Jones's claim for $100,000.00. On 2 June 1997, Brown paid $100,000.00 to the Respondent to pay over to the Complainant, evidenced by a receipt. The Respondent never paid the money to the Complainant or the Kingston Legal Aid Clinic, ignored repeated demand letters, failed to respond to the complaint served in October 1998, and did not attend either hearing. The Committee found him guilty of professional misconduct and breach of Canon 1(b). His name was ordered struck off the Roll, and he was ordered to pay the Complainant $100,000.00 with 12% interest per annum from 2 June 1997, plus $5,000.00 costs. No express finding of dishonesty was made.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Failed to respond to demand letters from the Kingston Legal Aid Clinic
• Failed to respond to the General Legal Council after the complaint was served in October 1998
• Failed to attend hearings on June 17 and July 1, 2000
• Failed to pay over the money despite being given an adjournment opportunity to do so