Lawyer faked progress on client's case for 2.5 years
Mr Jones was assaulted at his workplace and he sought Mr Giovanni Mirabella as his lawyer to sue for personal injury. Mr Mirabella told Mr Jones that he would receive a minimum of $100,000 for his personal injury claim.
Mr Mirabella told Mr Jones that he had subpoenaed documents, served papers on the opposition, sought advice from a barrister, and was in the process of organising the court date. However, he did not do any of those things.
Mr Mirabella told his client that there was an upcoming mediation. He told him after the alleged mediation that the opposition did not want to settle and that they wanted to proceed to court. However, there was no mediation.
Later, Mr Jones travelled into the city for the alleged court case. Mr Mirabella met Mr Jones at a nearby café and told him that the law had changed. He advised that another Government department would handle the matter and he would receive a cheque in the mail. However, there was no court case and the law had not changed.
Mr Mirabella made his assistant create a fake file note for their firm’s records. On the file note, the assistant wrote: “John – I am begging just give this to Cabone - this week”, “No application has been issued? how can you have issued subpoenas?”, “What barrister?” and “I have typed exactly what you said. We have done none of this. Why don’t you just give the file to Tony Cabone. I don’t understand what you are doing”.
Mr Mirabella carried on the matter for 2.5 years before Mr Jones found out. Mr Jones reported Mr Mirabella to the Legal Services Commissioner and he was found guilty of (1) Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct and (2) Professional Misconduct.
The Legal Services Commissioner found that there were two main contributing factors towards Mr Mirabella's behaviour. Firstly, Mr Mirabella had a long history of mental illness, namely, major depressive disorder. And secondly, Mr Mirabella was unfamiliar with personal injury law and did not know how to run Mr Jones’ matter.
Mr Mirabella was ordered to 12 months of legal supervision and was ordered to pay the Legal Services Commissioner’s legal fees totalling $9,500. By the time Mr Jones found out, too much time had passed and he could no longer sue his workplace for personal injury.
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