Solicitor strung along client for years with false case updates

A solicitor who continued to be dishonest to his client for six years about the progress of a case has been struck off the roll. Andrew Lynsey Jones, admitted in 2000, was told  by his client that he wanted to resolve his 2010 claim quickly.

Two years later Jones told the client that a barrister had been instructed and in 2018 he told the client’s son that the case was listed for a hearing when this was untrue.

Jones, who owned Hartlepool firm MSP Legal Services LLP, denied he acted dishonestly but the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found all the allegations – including dishonesty – proved and ordered that he be struck off.

The tribunal heard that Jones had taken on the instruction to negotiate a financial settlement in a partnership dispute. Within a month of the first instruction the defendants made an offer to settle, which the client rejected.

Jones wrote to the client explaining he had ‘retained’ counsel with a view to proving an opinion. He also told the defendants he had received final views from an accountant and barrister.

Little progress was made until proceedings were issued in 2014. The claim form should have been served four months later but Jones neither did this nor sought an extension of time.

Increasingly concerned at the time being taken, the client’s son raised concerns in 2018 and subsequently made a complaint to the legal ombudsman, which concluded that Jones failed to progress the case over several years, failed to provide information about costs and failed to follow instructions to pursue a settlement. The firm was ordered to pay £10,000 in costs refunds and compensation, and to write off almost £10,000 in unbilled work.

The SRA, prosecuting, said there was no evidence that Jones had discussions with any barristers about the case. Despite this, he went as far as telling the client that the barrister purportedly retained was on holiday and later that he was waiting on their call.

Jones did not give oral evidence before the tribunal but had previously stated through his lawyers that the wording of his correspondence with the client had been ‘infelicitous’ and that a reference to ‘retaining’ a solicitor was not the same as instructing one. The tribunal found that Jones deliberately misled his client on seven different occasions to give the impression that counsel had been identified and instructed.

Jones was struck off and ordered to pay £9,970 costs.