It would be wrong to assume in this day and age that it is “inherently more improbable” that a professional person such as a solicitor will be dishonest than anyone else, the High Court has said.

Ruling on a negligence claim, HHJ Saffman, sitting as a High Court judge, found that an attendance note made by sole practitioner Baljinder Hayre had misrepresented “the true position”. The judge had been faced with a dispute between 2 parties where he had to decide who to believe. One was a solicitor and the other, the solicitor’s former client, a company director. In finding that the solicitor’s version of events could not be believed and that especially his evidence that a fax machine showed the wrong time to be ‘inconceivable’. The solicitor had misrepresented the true position and was found to be essentially dishonest.