Paul Fraser Langley

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

Paul Fraser Langley, a partner at Plexus Law, appended a colleague's electronic signature to six Statements of Truth on defences to road traffic accident claims without consent, and filed them at court. The allegation of a Principle 4 (dishonesty) breach was withdrawn by the SRA as it could not evidence his state of mind, and the Tribunal found no dishonesty. He admitted breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 5 and paragraph 1.4 of the Code. On an agreed outcome dealt with on the papers, the Tribunal found high culpability but noted his self-report and prompt rectification. It imposed a 28-day suspension and ordered costs of £3,500.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct occurred over a three-week period concerning six defences
• It took a number of weeks before the issue was rectified, only after Person A raised it
• The Respondent minimised his conduct as 'taking a few short cuts'
• No reason why he could not have signed the defences himself
• Experienced solicitor of 25 years in a position of authority as partner with supervisory responsibilities
• High culpability; repeated across six documents

Mitigating factors:

• Self-reported to the SRA and took immediate steps to rectify the situation
• Informed the Firm, the court and the other side
• No loss or detriment suffered; court granted permission to amend defences
• Acted under pressure due to understaffed team, intending to assist colleague and protect client interests