Lawyer suspended after missing hearing, ignoring client's messages

A lawyer caused his client to be forever barred from claiming a sum of about $170,000 when he failed to attend a crucial court hearing.

Instead of trying to remedy the situation, for the next 14 months, he ignored more than 70 text and e-mail messages from his client.

Yesterday, Mr Peter Ezekiel, who has been a lawyer for more than 22 years, was suspended for two years for his misconduct.

In handing down the punishment, the Court of Three Judges noted the "prolonged duration and blatant nature of his wrongdoing".

The two-year suspension takes effect after his current suspension expires.

Last year, he was suspended for three years for acting for two clients with conflicting interests and favouring one over the other.

In the current case, he was appointed to act for Worldwide Factoring, which wanted to stake a third-party claim in a dispute over $170,140.56 between two other companies.

On April 4, 2017, Worldwide sent him a cheque for $300 as a deposit but he did not issue a receipt.

He failed to attend a hearing on April 11, 2017, and the court threw out Worldwide's claim and ordered it to pay costs of $850 each to the plaintiff and the defendant.

The court had earlier ordered the firm to engage a lawyer by the hearing date, failing which its claim would be dismissed.

A few days later, Mr Ezekiel contacted the defendant's lawyers to find out the status of the case but did not inform his client of the outcome.

The client found out only on April 24, 2017 through a letter from the defendant's lawyers.

Company representatives sent numerous text and e-mail messages to Mr Ezekiel but he did not respond. The firm lodged a complaint with the Law Society in September 2017.

In early 2018, Mr Ezekiel signed two notes promising to make things right. But he did not file any court application and continued ignoring text messages.

In June last year, a disciplinary tribunal found him guilty of failing to account for the deposit, failing to attend court and failing to contact his client. The tribunal referred the case to the Court of Three Judges, which has the power to suspend and disbar lawyers.

Yesterday, Mr Ezekiel was not in court to argue his case.

The Law Society's lawyer, Ms Wendy Lin, noted that he did not deny receiving the messages and that his lack of response was clearly not an oversight.