Yesterday, the tribunal released its decision on the matter, in which it suspended Sheat from the roll of barristers and solicitors for six months and ordered him to pay a combination of compensation, fines and legal fees of nearly $40,000.
The decision stated Sheat showed a lack of care for his client, whose interests he sacrificed for his own pecuniary advantage.
“It is more than a technical lapse, it is fundamental that a lawyer must keep their client informed of all relevant matters, not least of which is the management by the lawyer of the client’s own money.”
The tribunal said that while Sheat appeared to be remorseful to some extent he still harboured a sense that he was entitled to the $18,500 he took, which he repaid to his client shortly before the tribunal hearing.
“We think there is need for him to be required to reflect on his conduct, not only in what he admitted, but his sluggish move to rectify what he had done wrong.”
The tribunal said Sheat had two prior disciplinary findings of unsatisfactory conduct at a Standards Committee level, one of which pre-dated the current misconduct.
It said in April 2017 Sheat was found guilty of overcharging a client by $47,000, charging more than $137,000 rather than a fair and reasonable fee of $90,000.
However, Sheat was working for a different firm at the time of the complaint in about 2014 and was one of several lawyers involved in the matter, as well as that firm.
His role in the excessive fees that were complained about was limited to advice Sheat gave to a client, and he was fined $1000.
The tribunal noted that Sheat’s offending in the current case was not the worst behaviour it had seen but said it showed “concerning laxity” despite him having practised mostly without incident for 40 years.
“Broadly, across the past eight years or so, there are signs of wear, that attention to detail has not been sharp enough to be safe,” the tribunal said.
“Our concern for any future clients is not so much around technical legal issues but the risk of inattention to the detailed burdens of running a practice – from billing and accounting minutiae on – to their potential detriment.”
The tribunal said that striking Sheat from the roll of barristers and solicitors was too severe and that a six-month suspension would suffice in deterring other legal practitioners from making the same mistakes.
An earlier version of this article stated it was the second time Sheat and his firm had been before the tribunal for overcharging. In fact, Sheat was found guilty by a Standards Committee, not the tribunal, of unsatisfactory conduct in relation to the earlier case of excessive fees while he was an employee at another firm. His firm Akarana Legal was not involved.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
