John Mitton

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

John Mitton, a barrister acting as a lawyer in a solicitor's office, was found to have acted dishonestly between February 2015 and March 2016 by sending a series of emails to his client that allowed and reinforced the client's false belief that legal proceedings had been issued, an application to settle lodged, and a hearing date sought, when none had occurred. Applying the Ivey test, the five-person Tribunal made an express finding of dishonesty (and consequential lack of integrity) on Charge 1 and found Charge 2 (diminishing public trust) proven. He was disbarred on both charges concurrently, his practising certificate suspended immediately, and ordered to pay GBP 90 costs within 28 days.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Premeditation (continuing nature of misleading responses over time)
• Persistent conduct over a lengthy period
• Undermining the profession in the eyes of the public
• Failure to respond promptly to communications with professional body
• Element of dishonesty

Mitigating factors:

• Previous good character / first appearance before the Tribunal and SRA
• Positive reference from Chambers
• Personal pressure and stress (home life and internal firm problems)
• Some remorse (initial partial plea and apology, later withdrawn)