Julie Theresa DEVERY

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

Solicitor Julie Devery faced five charges arising from failing to act competently and diligently for a client in litigation, failing to hand over the file, failing to respond to the Commissioner's notices, and failing to pass on money to a medical practitioner. The Tribunal found charges 3 and 5 (failure to respond to notices) to be professional misconduct (automatic under s 443), and charges 1, 2 and 4 to be unsatisfactory professional conduct. No dishonesty was found. She was publicly reprimanded, fined $2,500, ordered to pay $1,500 costs (both within 90 days), and any future practising certificate restricted to employee level for one year.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Competence
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Lack of action exposed the client to dire consequences (bankruptcy proceedings)
• Persistence in failing to respond to client's and new solicitors' requests for the file
• Failure to inform client of correspondence about bankruptcy proceedings
• Continuing failure to cooperate with investigations, showing disregard of obligations under the Act

Mitigating factors:

• No previous disciplinary history (admitted 1984)
• Admitted all charges and their particulars
• Adverse personal and financial circumstances (quiet practice, financial hardship, dependent son, husband with little income, forced to sell home, receivers appointed)
• Cooperated by accepting limitation on practising as principal and agreeing to pay costs