Nicola Cain

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

Barrister Nicola Cain admitted four charges of professional misconduct arising from her conduct in High Court proceedings. She fabricated a court order falsely purporting to be signed by a Senior Master and sent it to her client, created a fabricated application, dishonestly misled her client about the status of applications, and falsely stated in a witness statement that she was authorised to make it. The Tribunal made express findings of dishonesty (indeed serious/high-level dishonesty) on charges 1, 3 and 4. It found no exceptional circumstances to depart from the guidance that dishonesty warrants disbarment, and disbarred her on charges 1, 3 and 4. On charge 2 (failing to notify the client of applications, not involving dishonesty), it imposed a 6-month suspension. She was ordered to pay £5,900 costs within 28 days.

Duties found breached:

• Prosecutorial duty of disclosure
• No conflict between current clients

Aggravating factors:

• Course of conduct rather than a one-off/fleeting lapse, repeated across multiple instances
• Fabrication of court documents undermining administration of justice and public confidence
• Significant culpability and significant harm; keeping client in the dark

Mitigating factors:

• Early admission of misconduct
• Self-reporting
• Genuine remorse
• Co-operation with the investigation
• Previously unblemished record and strong references
• Personal circumstances including work pressure and mental health issues (though not amounting to exceptional circumstances)