MEDIA RELEASE – For immediate use, 23 August 2013

Gregory Bryden Clarke struck off roll of barristers and solicitors

Gregory Bryden Clarke of Dargaville has been struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors of the High Court of New Zealand.

Mr Clarke was struck off by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal at a tribunal hearing on 22 August.

New Zealand Law Society President Chris Moore says Mr Clarke was instructed by a client to file a claim in the Disputes Tribunal and he did not do so.

“He misled his client on a number of occasions that he had filed the claim, and he told his client that a hearing date had been set. No claim had, in fact, been filed and the client found this out when he contacted the Disputes Tribunal,” Mr Moore said.

“Mr Clarke also had previous disciplinary findings against him for misconduct in 2001, and the Disciplinary Tribunal had suspended him from practice for a period of three months in 2007.”

Mr Moore said it was fundamental in the Lawyers Conduct and Client Care Rules that a lawyer must always act competently and in a timely manner.

“Any lawyer who has been retained by a client must complete the services which that client requires unless there is good cause not to,” he said.

“That was not the case with Mr Clarke and the Law Society will always view such transgressions very seriously.”

ENDS

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