Probate: Solicitor had not issued proceedings she said were ongoing
A recently qualified solicitor at Irwin Mitchell who misled multiple contentious probate clients about the progress of their cases has been struck off.
Rachael Catherine Worthington (formerly Williams) admitted her misconduct and said she had already left the profession as a result of her experiences.
Born in 1991, Ms Worthington was admitted in September 2018 and between May 2019 and February 2022 worked in the Manchester office of Irwin Mitchell in its wills, trusts and estates disputes team.
She had gone on maternity leave in November 2021, shortly after which calls from a client raised concerns about her conduct of their matter. The firm’s senior audit officer then looked through 50 of Ms Worthington’s files, identifying 15 matters of concern, eight of which had potential conduct issues.
Four matters with “serious and persisting conduct issues” were the subject of the prosecution.
Irwin Mitchell invited Ms Worthington to a disciplinary interview in January 2022. She said she was unable to attend and resigned the following month.
In a statement of agreed facts and outcome put before the SDT, Ms Worthington admitted telling two clients and their legal expenses insurer that their probate claim had been issued at court, and then giving progress updates, when in fact no claim had been issued.
She did not list the matter on her handover before going on maternity leave and also deleted it from her monthly supervision list in June 2020.
Ms Worthington similarly misled two clients and the opposing solicitors on another matter, which led to an adverse costs order against the clients, while in a third probate dispute she told the client that she had written to the Probate Registry and that a probate application had been submitted on time when neither was the case.
In the fourth matter, over the validity of a will, Ms Worthington again told her client that proceedings had been issued, and provided updates, when they had not been.
In agreeing that she should be struck off, the SDT noted that clients had suffered financial losses as a result of her misconduct.
“She had breached the trust placed in her as a solicitor to act in accordance with her clients instructions and to keep them informed of progress on their matters. She had misled client insurers in respect of cases and had sought to cover up the errors that she had made.”
The statement recorded that Irwin Mitchell had offered compensation to the clients and in two of the cases stopped acting due to an own-interest conflict.
In mitigation – which the SRA said it did not adopt or endorse – Ms Worthington said she was “happy to make admissions that I have acted dishonestly and accordingly agree to being struck off” but put it into the context of what she claimed was inadequate supervision for a newly qualified solicitor.
She claimed she had been under “an inexplicable amount of pressure”, which led to “serious mental health issues and being suicidal”, and in turn to the “stupid decisions”, made “out of desperation”, to misled clients.
“I… left the profession so that I could move on with my life and try to heal,” Ms Worthington wrote.
She was also ordered to pay costs of £3,500.
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