Lawyer Lisamae Gordon gets temporary stay of suspension from practising

The Court of Appeal has granted a temporary stay of execution of an order of the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council suspending attorney-at-law Lisamae Gordon from practising for the next six months.

The stay, which was granted on Wednesday, will remain in effect until January 10 next year when there will be an inter-partes hearing.

She is asking the court to grant a stay until her appeal has been heard.

Gordon was last month found guilty of professional misconduct over the sale of a property in Orange Grove, Trelawny, which fell through.

The committee had ruled that as a  condition of being reinstated, Gordon must pay  US$35,000 to the complainants who had attempted to buy the property in 2014 and had paid a deposit directly to the vendor, which the vendor did not return. Gordon had acted for the vendor.

In addition,  Gordon was ordered to pay $200,000 for legal costs for the complainants and the GLC.

Gordon  said except for a US$10,000 deposit, all the funds were paid directly to the vendor by the complainants, without her knowledge and consent.

Several grounds of appeal have been filed in which Gordon is asking the Court of Appeal to overturn the committee's ruling that she was guilty of professional misconduct.

Gordon is objecting primarily to the finding that as the vendor's attorney, she owed a duty of care to the purchasers.

She is also asking the court to find that the respondent erred as a matter of fact and/or law in awarding compensation of US$35,000 to the complainants, having regard to the circumstances of  the case, including the fact that she did not derive any financial benefit from the payment of these sums by the complainants.

Gordon, who is being represented by the law firm Henlin Gibson Henlin, is asking the court to set aside the decisions of the committee.

-Barbara Gayle

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