A Public Trustee lawyer has agreed to never again practise after he engaged in eight counts of professional misconduct, including lying about progressing a claim and failing to provide updates about significant developments.
Lewis Chiat, a former lawyer with the Public Trustee, has given an undertaking to the Legal Services and Complaints Committee and Legal Practice Board of Western Australia to never again work in the profession.
The State Administrative Board has also publicly reprimanded Chiat and ordered that he pay the committee’s costs in the sum of $5,000.
Between March 2013 and July 2019, Chiat engaged in professional misconduct by his failure to adequately or competently progress his client’s claim in a timely manner, which resulted in it being placed in the West Australian District Court’s Inactive Cases List (ICL).
He then failed to take any steps to have it removed from the ICL, which caused the proceedings to be dismissed in 2016.
When a settlement offer was made to this same client on a “good faith” basis, Chiat failed to promptly respond to the other party, failed to brief counsel in relation to an application for leave to compromise his client’s claim, and failed to apply to the District Court for the leave.
In breach of the Legal Profession Conduct Rules, Chiat took no further steps to progress the claim, causing the Public Trustee to be put in a position of conflict because the client “may have a basis to pursue a claim”.
During this same period, Chiat failed to give timely, accurate and complete information to the Public Trustee on significant developments, including for the proposed settlement and a counteroffer he later agreed to.
With a separate client between January 2014 and July 2019, Chiat failed to update the Public Trustee that he had agreed to a settlement and that there had been delays due to his failure to take any steps to progress the claim.
Regarding a third client, Chiat emailed a false report to the Public Trustee that purported he had brought a matter before the Magistrates Court but was having difficulties serving documents. He went so far as to say he made and was granted an application for substituted service.
He also sent a report to a tribunal representing that legal proceedings had been commenced when this was not the case.
Chiat self-reported the first matter and has cooperated with the committee’s investigation, the State Administrative Tribunal noted.
The case: Legal Services and Complaints Committee and Chiat [2025] VR 58.
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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