A solicitor who sent ‘threatening and offensive’ emails to a client has been struck off as 'a danger to the public'.

SDT

SDT

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said Kirsten Von Wedel, admitted in 2000, was a ‘danger to the public’ and it had a duty to protect the public by striking her off. Von Wedel was the sole principal of Berkshire firm K Law.

The judgment states that in the case of RP, Von Wedel failed to redeem the client's mortgage within a reasonable timeframe and eventually redeemed it from a foreign bank account. In another conveyancing transaction, she failed to pay stamp duty or register the property with HM Land Registry.

On emails to RP, the tribunal said the tenor of Von Wedel's language was offensive and inappropriate for a solicitor to use to a client. The use of the word ‘spastick’ in particular was ‘an utter disgrace’. 

Phrases such as ‘clock’s ticking’ and ‘If I hear one screeming little frekking mim from you…’ were ‘clear examples of threatening language’, the tribunal added. ‘This was in the context of baseless threats of High Court legal proceedings and claims for damages against RP if he did not stop asking difficult questions of Ms Von Wedel. The clear intention of these emails was to shut down RP’s enquiries, which were entirely justified.’

In mitigation, Von Wedel told the tribunal she had been working under severe pressure, which included being in hospital, followed by the imposition of lockdown, all against a background of difficult circumstances dating back to 2014.

However, while Von Wedel’s motivation ‘started as a consequence of maladministration and personal pressures’, the tribunal said it then grew ‘to mask her own mistakes’. Her misconduct was not originally planned but ‘became so’, with her misrepresentations to clients and attempt to threaten RP into backing off some ‘obvious examples of this’.

Von Wedel was struck off and ordered to pay £49,001 costs.

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