Prominent Lautoka lawyer, Haroon Ali Shah has been disbarred after being found guilty of seven counts of professional misconduct and two counts of unsatisfactory conduct.
Independent Legal Services Commissioner, Justice Paul Madigan ruled this afternoon that the Chief Registrar strike Shah's name from the roll of legal practitioners.
Shah is permitted to continue in practice for 28 days for the limited purposes of winding up his practice but in the course of that period he is not to make any court appearances or accept new instructions from existing or new clients.
Haroon Ali Shah is also ordered to pay wasted costs of $7,500 to the Chief Registrar and $7,500 to the Commission by the 31st of next month for failing to appear on the first day of the hearing in January this year.
He also has to pay $1,056 in witness expenses.
The complaint was lodged by a Bal Ram of Lautoka who together with his daughter instructed Haroon Ali Shah in the late 1980s to act on the daughter's behalf to pursue a claim for damages following a tragic accident in which her husband was killed and her children injured.
The claim was settled and Shah received $70,000 dollars from an insurance company.
He banked the money in his firm's account in May 2001 however he did not inform Ram and his daughter of the settlement.
After persistent enquiry for almost 3 years, Shah paid them $50,000 and deducted $20,000 without a fee note being raised.
Shah has been practicing law for 30 years.
