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SINGAPORE: Lawyer Lim Tean has been discovered responsible by a disciplinary tribunal of two costs of grossly improper conduct over the dealing with of S$30,000 belonging to an ex-client.
Mr Lim was discovered by the disciplinary tribunal to have been looking for to make use of the cash in query to pay not solely his charges but additionally the charges of a creditor of the previous consumer. He’s mentioned to have deliberately saved a cheque for S$30,000 that he obtained from a former consumer.
Stories of the discovering towards Mr Lim, who additionally heads the opposition social gathering Individuals’s Voice, got here to mild on Tuesday (Aug 22) once they have been made public.
The matter surfaced after a grievance was made by Mr Lim’s former consumer, Mr Suresh Kumar A Jesupal. Mr Lim had represented Mr Suresh Kumar in a motorcar accident declare on October 2018.
The next yr, the consumer was awarded S$50,000 upon issuing a judgment within the case.
Willy Tay Chambers, the solicitors for AXA Insurance coverage, paid S$30,000 to Carson Legislation Chambers, Mr Lim’s agency, on Nov 14, 2019.
However yesterday, Mr Suresh Kumar discharged Mr Lim after hiring a special legislation agency, Joseph Chen & Co, to symbolize him. This agency despatched Carson Legislation Chambers a letter informing them of the change that very same day (Nov 13).
Mr Lim mentioned, nevertheless, that he solely discovered that Mr Suresh Kumar had changed his legislation agency on Nov 14. On the identical day, Mr Lim deposited the cheque into Carson Legislation Chambers’ workplace account, not its consumer account.
A 3rd cost of misappropriating the quantity paid attributable to failing or neglecting to pay it to the consumer had additionally been introduced by the Legislation Society of Singapore towards Mr Lim, however this cost was later withdrawn when Mr Suresh Kumar didn’t present the required proof.
CNA reported Mr Lim as saying that Mr Suresh Kumar saved on assembly with the legal professionals at Carson Legislation Chambers even after he knowledgeable them that he had modified legal professionals and that primarily based on a earlier association, Mr Suresh Kumar was to first pay proceeds of the judgment sum to his creditor, in addition to to Mr Lim.
Nevertheless, the tribunal discovered that regardless of being absolutely conscious that he had been changed as Mr Suresh Kumar’s lawyer by Nov 14, 2019, he nonetheless deposited the cheque into Carson Legislation Chambers’ workplace account.
It mentioned that Mr Lim’s actions weren’t “unintended or inadvertent however deliberate” and that he didn’t present proof of “what really occurred to the cash thereafter”.
The tribunal additionally rejected Mr Lim’s declare that not depositing the cheque from Mr Suresh Kumar into the consumer’s account had been a “mere oversight,” including that shoppers’ cash must be handled with “utmost care.”
It discovered it “troublesome to consider” that Mr Lim, who has practised legislation for 3 a long time, “didn’t know of the requirement to have a consumer account, or that he needed to pay consumer’s cash into this account”.
The Court docket of Three Judges, the best disciplinary physique for legal professionals, will later determine if Mr Lim will face disciplinary motion. /TISG
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