Ethlyn M. Norton Coke

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

The Respondent attorney acted for the Complainant vendor in a 1996 sale of land. She failed to secure the purchasers' agreement to pay rental before letting them into possession, falsely assured the client a rental agreement existed (found to be a deception), failed to pursue rent/interest, failed to render a final account, and ignored repeated requests and the Complaint. The Committee found the complaint proved beyond reasonable doubt, finding breaches of Canons VII(b), IV(s), IV(r) and I(b). It ordered restitution of J$315,000 (7 months at J$45,000) with 12% interest from 30 April 1997, a fine of J$50,000, and costs of J$20,000.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• No improper communication with the court
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money

Aggravating factors:

• Falsely assured client that a rental agreement had been secured, deceiving her into parting with possession
• Repeated failure/refusal to render a final account despite numerous requests
• Failure to respond to Counsel's letters and to the Complaint
• Failure to appear at the hearing without explanation
• Left client for almost 6 years without knowing the account status

Mitigating factors:

• Misconduct assessed as not at the extreme end of the scale