Comments on: ‘Chickened out’: Solicitor struck off for hiding expert report from client https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/ Legal news, insider insight and careers advice Thu, 04 Sep 2025 14:30:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 By: Archibald O'Pomposity https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1231884 Thu, 04 Sep 2025 14:30:41 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1231884 In reply to Terrified trainee.

A salutary warning, more like, for everybody in your position to act with integrity and with your clients interest at heart.

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By: Terrified trainee https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1231470 Mon, 01 Sep 2025 21:13:50 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1231470 Good lord this is terrifying. It was definitely wrong, but Strike off seems totally disproportionate.

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By: Archibald O'Pomposity https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1231119 Sat, 30 Aug 2025 15:31:46 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1231119 In reply to Marshall H.

Lawyers who routinely lose cases, yes.

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By: Archibald O'Pomposity https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1231115 Sat, 30 Aug 2025 15:28:46 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1231115 In reply to Paul.

A lot of assumptions, Paul. I suspect you wouldn’t be so blasé had you been the client.

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By: Marshall H https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1231098 Sat, 30 Aug 2025 12:17:52 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1231098 In reply to A member of the public.

Unless she billed the extra 8 weeks she was preserving the client’s false sense they had a case. Some would say that was all lawyers do…

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By: Anonymous https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1231044 Sat, 30 Aug 2025 06:12:01 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1231044 I have been subject to several extreme delays with deceitful legal professionals it is actually fraud to be deceitful by any ordinary persons understanding

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By: Anonymous https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230987 Fri, 29 Aug 2025 20:23:57 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230987 In reply to Justin.

Laura, you have really won. It may not sound like that right now but you are lucky to get out of a profession that is regulated by nitwits who themselves have caused more financial loss due to their own incompetence than the solicitors profession ever did when they regulated themselves.

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By: A member of the public https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230981 Fri, 29 Aug 2025 19:36:08 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230981 In reply to Stephen Allinson.

You have a code of professional conduct that you must work by and adhere to. This is planned calculated and deliberately. At a cost of £260.00 + VAT per hour. The least you can do is act in the best interest of the client. I have seen the damage that solicitors cause to clients when they ( solicitors) mess up. It destroys lives and families, not to mention the mental anguish and anxiety caused by such actions. Greedy solicitor firms and solicitors afraid to stand up and say work load is too excessive. So yes I agree the decision was correct.

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By: Gt https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230866 Fri, 29 Aug 2025 11:01:02 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230866 In reply to Stephen Allinson.

Too much pressure put on relatively new solicitors by the admin to produce costs.
I bet she feels a lot better being out of the rat race.

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By: JPM https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230847 Fri, 29 Aug 2025 10:13:59 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230847 The decision may seem harsh, but trust between solicitors and clients is the foundation on which representation stands.

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By: Ranulph https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230807 Fri, 29 Aug 2025 07:37:34 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230807 In reply to Patrick Grant.

Feel pity for her. Only 6 years in and feeling pressure at a top firm.

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By: Anonymous Bumpkin https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230732 Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:42:37 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230732 In reply to Paul.

Totally agree on that. People worry about Trump’s America-I worry about the SDT/SRA’S England and Wales…

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By: Anonymous https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230730 Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:36:58 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230730 I can imagine you’d think that law firm name is something terrible if you’re dyslexic.

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By: Stephen Allinson https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230723 Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:02:50 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230723 I totally agree with the other comments. The common theme in many of these cases is the pressure Sols feel and ( often) the lack of support from their firms. Too many firms parrot out well being platitudes but the reality often seems different. I wish Mrs Simpson every success and fulfilment in the future.

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By: Vernon https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230711 Thu, 28 Aug 2025 21:40:59 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230711 She obviously didn’t have anyone she felt able to discuss the matter with- the sanction seems severe for someone who under pressure made an error of judgment

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By: Patrick Grant https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230700 Thu, 28 Aug 2025 20:12:38 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230700 Not disclosing a report to a client for eight weeks must be unacceptable and it was a stupid thing to do. The stated purpose was to buy time to consider it which should have been about a week.

The consequence might well have been the client losing a lot of the client’s money pursuing a lost cause.

And who would gain from that? The solicitor?

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By: Astonished https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230686 Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:29:25 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230686 The Bar Standards Board would have given an oral warning for this.

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By: Paul https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230659 Thu, 28 Aug 2025 15:36:43 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230659 In reply to Justin.

Maybe the outcome would have been different had Laura been motivated to continue in the profession, but strike off appears on the face of it wholly disproportionate. The harm caused by an 8-week delay in receiving the report was surely relatively modest. It was presumably an expert opinion that meant the client’s case would likely not succeed in any event.

Some of these SDT decisions scare me.

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By: Justin https://www.legalcheek.com/2025/08/chickened-out-solicitor-struck-off-for-hiding-expert-report-from-client/#comment-1230629 Thu, 28 Aug 2025 12:02:10 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=223607#comment-1230629 It’s an incredibly stressful and difficult job. Often not helped by some clients. If you haven’t been there then you might not understand.
I wish you the very best for your future Laura and I do hope that everything works out well for you.

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