A disciplinary tribunal found Singaporean lawyer Lim Tean guilty of two charges of grossly improper conduct.
The tribunal’s report found that Mr Lim had deliberately withheld a cheque for S$30,000 from his client, Mr Suresh Kumar A Jesupal.
The lawyer had purportedly sought to use the money to pay his own fees and his client’s creditor.
The disciplinary tribunal saw cause of sufficient gravity to warrant disciplinary action against Mr Lim.
ChannelNews Asia (CNA) reported that Mr Suresh Kumar first appointed Mr Lim to represent him for a vehicular accident claim in Oct 2018.
The latter was a lawyer of 30 years from Carson Law Chambers (CLC) at the time.
A year later, in Oct 2019, the court awarded a sum of S$50,000 to Mr Suresh Kumar, with S$30,000 sent to CLC as an interim payment.
Mr Suresh Kumar then decided to appoint a new law firm, Joseph Chen & Co, to act for him. He discharged Mr Lim from representing him in Nov 2019.
Mr Lim, however, kept the S$30,000 and deposited it into CLC’s bank account. This was despite Joseph Chen & Co informing him of the change in representation.
With this wrongful withholding of his client’s money, he faced two charges of improper conduct.
A third charge alleging the misappropriation of the S$30,000 was dropped when Mr Suresh Kumar declined to give the necessary evidence.
Mr Lim claimed that he had an agreement with Mr Suresh Kumar that the payment of his creditor and Mr Lim himself was to take priority before going to the client.
The disciplinary tribunal found that Mr Lim was fully aware that Mr Suresh Kumar had discharged him as his lawyer.
Additionally, they stated that Mr Lim did not bring up the cheque to the new law firm. He had deliberately kept the fact from them, intending to use it to pay Mr Suresh Kumar’s creditor and himself.
Regarding paying the cheque to the CLC’s bank account instead of the client account, Mr Lim claimed the action was merely an oversight.
The tribunal highlighted that the client’s money was to be “treated with the utmost care”. It was skeptical that Mr Lim, a lawyer for three decades, was unaware that he had to pay the sum into a client account.
As such, the disciplinary tribunal found Mr Lim guilty of both charges of improper conduct.
Any disciplinary actions against him will be decided at a later date.
Mr Lim had previously been hit with several other charges including criminal breach of trust.
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