Christopher Battye [1997] NSWLST 9

The Legal Services Tribunal of New South Wales

CITATION : Christopher Battye [1997] NSWLST 9 PARTIES : Christopher Battye FILE NUMBER(S) : of 1996 CORAM: Mr F Riley (President) - Ms S Carr-Gregg - Dr M. Costigan CATCHWORDS: Professional Misconduct - forgery :- LEGISLATION CITED: Legal Profession Act 1987 Legal Practitioners' Act 1898 Weare 1893 2 QB 439 per Lopes LJ at 448 ; Council of the Law Society of New South Wales v Foreman 1994 34 NSWLR 408 ; CASES CITED: Wales v Meagher (1909) 9 CLR 655 at 681; C A Parbury NSW Court of Appeal 11 May 1989; Law Society of New South Wales v McNamara (unreported CA 160/79); Jauncey v Law Society of New South Wales (unreported Court of Appeal 1 February 1989 DATES OF HEARING: 9 July 1997 DATE OF JUDGMENT: 08/01/1997 Mr D Hipsley LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES: Mr R Stitt QC

JUDGMENT:

A solicitor, after a marital dispute left the matrimonial home and, agreed to purchase a home unit. He was obliged to borrow most of the purchase money and the lender required a guarantee from the solicitor's wife. The solicitor forged his wife's signature to the deed of guarantee and on the mortgage and forged the signature of another solicitor on a certificate of independent advice. He asked his secretary to sign as the attesting witness to the signatures he had placed on the documents for himself and his wife. The solicitor made frank admissions of his misconduct and, without seeking to excuse it, claimed that it was the result of his distressed emotional state following the break up of his marriage. The Tribunal, while condemning the solicitor's professional misconduct, determined that in the circumstances, it should be regarded as a single episode of aberrant behaviour and was not, of necessity, indicative of an enduring defect of character which would justify a protective order. The Tribunal ordered that the solicitor's right to practise be limited until 1 July 1999; that he should pay a fine of $12,000.00 and the costs of the Law Society.