Decision record
Keith A. Jarrett
Appeals and appellate references
- Appellate document — relationship to this matter unverified: Supreme Court Civil Appeal No 102 of 2009
- Appellate document — relationship to this matter unverified: Massop v. Morrison [2012) JMCA Civ. 56
“Unverified” means the upstream page linked an appellate judgment but did not preserve enough context to prove that it was an appeal in this matter.
Allegation / charges
Guilty of Professional Misconduct | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered June 27, 2019. || Suspended, Restitution Ordered | Disciplinary Committee decision delivered July 15, 2019. View PDF DECISION OF THE DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL LEGAL COUNCIL COMPLAINT NO: 42/2013 …
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Disciplinary Committee found Attorney Keith Jarrett guilty of professional misconduct in breach of Canons IV(r) and (s) for inexcusable and deplorable negligence in handling a client's motor vehicle accident defence. He failed to follow up on case management conferences, allowed a default judgment to be entered, delayed applying to set it aside, failed to plead a defective-brakes defence, and did not keep the complainant informed. No dishonesty was found (the case involved competence/negligence, not deceit or moral turpitude). No sanction was imposed in this decision; a separate sanction hearing was directed to allow mitigation.
Duties found breached:
- Overriding duty to the court
- Keep client informed and respond promptly
- Good faith and courtesy to colleagues
Aggravating factors:
- Three-year period of neglect between filing defence (June 2006) and awareness of case status (March 2009)
- Failed to follow up with attorney who attended case management conference, allowing default judgment
- Failed to promptly apply to set aside default judgment despite proper service
- Accepted retainer for civil litigation despite claiming criminal law was his area of practice
- Judgment of over $8 million entered against client as a result
Duties engaged
Other decisions involving this respondent
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Documents
Source: https://www.generallegalcouncil.org/judgement/keith-a-jarrett-complaint-no-42-of-2013/