Sneaky, Ambulance-Chasing Lawyer Gets Bar Boot For Attempting To Use Rubber Checks When Remitting Client's $2 Million Share Of Personal Injury Settlement, Then Failing To Make Good On The Money Or Account For The Cash

In St. Andrew, Jamaica, the Jamaica Observer reports:

• The General Legal Council has advised that Attorney-at-law Graceann Cameron has been struck off the Roll of Attorneys entitled to practice in Jamaica due to professional misconduct.
  
  According to a newspaper advertisement today [August 16], Cameron was found in breach of the legal profession on July 22 after the Disciplinary Committee heard evidence from a client, who filed a complaint against her, that she failed to hand over money from a legal settlement.
  
  The council outlined that the attorney represented the complainant in seeking compensation for injuries she sustained in a motor vehicle accident. Cameron reportedly received proceeds on behalf of the client after which she sent two cheques totalling $2 million.(1)
  
  However, according to the complainant, the bank dishonoured the cheques when the client presented it.
  
  The complainant told the legal council that despite her subsequent efforts, she could not reach Cameron.
  
  The legal council, in its advertisement, stated that Cameron has not accounted for or paid her client the negotiated settlement.(2)
  
  Cameron is said to have breached sections of the legal profession rules that speak to discrediting the legal profession and not obligating financial commitments to her client.
  
  As such, she is not entitled to practice in Jamaica or be employed in that capacity by any member of the public.

Source: Attorney disbarred for failing to handover $2m in settlement funds to client.

Editor's Note: According to the bar complaint, the victim was laid up in the hospital receiving treatment for multiple injuries (including a fractured right hip, a fractured knee and lacerations) when she was approached by a woman who identified herself as working with the ambulance-chasing Cameron, recommending her employer to the victim for legal representation.

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(1) At an exchange rate of $127.83 (Jamaican) to $1 (U.S.), the loss to the victim equates to approximately $15,600 (U.S.) in today's money.

(2) In Jamaica, The Compensation Fund was established in 2012 to assist clients who have suffered losses as a result of actions by attorneys. The General Legal Council of Jamaica is to administer the Fund.

For other "attorney ripoff reimbursement funds" that sometimes help cover the losses created by the dishonest conduct of lawyers licensed in the United States and in the Canadian provinces, see:

• Directory Of Lawyers' Funds For Client Protection (February 2017) (includes Canadian recovery funds, courtesy of the American Bar Association);
• Check the USA Client Protection Funds Map;
• Check the Canada Client Protection Funds Map.

Maps available courtesy of The National Client Protection Organization, Inc.  ripoff reimbursement