Last updated at 17:05, Thursday, 09 October 2008

A Carlisle lawyer whose firm was closed down in August is to appear before a professional disciplinary tribunal accused of dishonesty.

Pauline Butler

Pauline Butler’s Lowther Street firm was closed down on August 19 and all the work on her books was transferred to a Durham-based firm as an investigation began.

A spokesman for the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority (SRA) said yesterday that she is likely to face a hearing before the authority’s Professional Regulation Panel during early next year.

In a brief statement on the SRA’s website, officials state that her business was closed because the panel had reason to suspect dishonesty on the part of Mrs Butler.

She is alleged to have breached the so-called Solicitors’ Accounts Rules.

But no further details are likely to be made available before the full hearing takes places next year. Mrs Butler, 51, has not spoken publicly about the closure of her firm since it became public and the files from her office were transferred to Durham-based law firm Blackett, Hart and Pratt.

That firm’s solicitor, John Wood, has been appointed to carry out the investigation.

Law firms are closed down after such interventions in order to protect the public, the SRA has said.

At the time of the intervention in August, an SRA spokesman said the move was the result of serious concern about alleged financial irregularities at Mrs Butler’s Carlisle practice.

“There is nothing proven yet but we are allowed to intervene on the grounds of suspicion only,” he said.

Mrs Butler began her Carlisle firm as a sole practice on December 1, 1993.

She specialised in family law but also dealt with personal injury claims, wills, probate, employment law and residential property conveyancing. She qualified as a lawyer in January 1982.

Anybody with concerns about the firm can contact Blackett, Hart and Pratt on 0191 384 0840.

First published at 12:09, Thursday, 09 October 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk