Family lawyer convicted over offensive text to ex-partner


Conviction: Single text

A family law specialist convicted of sending a malicious communication to his ex-partner has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

Matthew Miles, an associate at Silk Family Law in Newcastle, accepted the sanction in a regulatory settlement agreement.

He pleaded guilty to sending an offensive text message at Harrogate Magistrates’ Court a year ago and was fined £1,269, and also ordered to pay a surcharge of £127 and costs of £85.

He admitted that he had failed to uphold public trust and confidence in the profession

In mitigation, Mr Miles pointed out that he pleaded guilty and cooperated with both the police and SRA investigations. Further, he has “expressed insight and remorse into his offending, such that the risk of re-offending appears low”.

The SRA said a rebuke was the appropriate outcome because “a sanction is required to uphold public confidence in the delivery of legal services”, while a lesser sanction “would not sufficiently address the nature of the criminal offence”.

Silk Family Law was acquired by Irwin Mitchell last year.




Leave a Comment

By clicking Submit you consent to Legal Futures storing your personal data and confirm you have read our Privacy Policy and section 5 of our Terms & Conditions which deals with user-generated content. All comments will be moderated before posting.

Required fields are marked *
Email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Blog


Three key ingredients for running a successful law firm

Have you considered a ‘pre-mortem’, which involves planning for potential failures by identifying everything that could go wrong and working backwards to prevent those issues?


Choose the right social media platforms for your business

Two-thirds of the world’s population are on it for almost two-and-a-half hours each day, on average. Each uses at least half a dozen different platforms every month.


Managing risk: a guide for law firms

Traditional risk management approaches typically focused on responding to incidents after they have occurred. Best practice today demands a more forward-thinking approach.


Loading animation