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Rural lawyer publicly reprimanded for botching will matter
Clients were left with “very little recourse” to contest a will because their rural Queensland lawyer failed to provide “clear and timely advice”.
Naomi Neilson
Natalie McDonald, the principal of Natalie McDonald Law, has been publicly reprimanded and hit with a $2,000 pecuniary penalty for her failure to act with competence and diligence while representing two men who were concerned about the validity of a will.
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The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) found this failure amounted to unsatisfactory professional conduct.
The clients first met with McDonald in her office, located in Queensland’s rural region of Upper Caboolture, in January 2020 to discuss whether they had been adequately provided for in the will.
Along with their half-sister, the men were joint alternative executors.
After this initial meeting, McDonald failed to search the Supreme Court of Queensland’s eCourts file and the Queensland Reports Probate Notice Database to see whether anyone, including the half-sister, had applied for or been granted probate.
The Legal Services Commissioner (LSC) said had she conducted those searches, either during the meeting or afterwards, “the urgency of taking steps to preserve the complainants’ position ought to have become apparent, given [the half-sister] had filed her application”.
In addition to a failure to conduct this search efficiently, McDonald did not advise the clients about applying for a probate caveat.
In March 2020, McDonald learnt that the half-sister had applied for and been granted probate, but McDonald did not send an application by mail to the Supreme Court to have this set aside until a month later.
The following day, McDonald received a letter from the half-sister’s solicitors at Shine Lawyers that stated the estate would be distributed if the application was not received within a fortnight.
When the deadline rolled around, a further letter arrived advising McDonald that the estate had been distributed. Two cheques addressed to each of the clients were included in the second letter.
It was only then that McDonald called the court’s registry and learnt the application had not arrived and the envelope was still pending.
In a submission to the tribunal, McDonald admitted she “did not act in a professional manner” and was “very remorseful”.
“The LSC submits that McDonald’s inexplicable delay in first filing the application, despite having instructions to do so, and then, second, following up on the status of the application, departs from the standard of competence, diligence and promptness,” the tribunal heard.
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