Lawyer Lim Tean has been found guilty of professional misconduct by a disciplinary tribunal.

Whether he would be facing disciplinary sanctions will be decided at a later date by the Court of Three Judges — the legal profession's highest disciplinary body.

Complaint by a motor accident claim client

According to the disciplinary tribunal’s findings made publicly available on Aug. 22, 2023, a complaint was made against Lim by his client, who he originally represented in a motor vehicle accident claim between October 2018 and November 2019.

Lim’s law firm, Carson Law Chambers (CLC), obtained a final judgment in the case on Oct. 8, 2019, for which the client won compensation.

However, his client decided to discharge Lim and hired another law firm on Nov. 13, 2019.

The newly appointed law firm sent CLC a letter to inform them of the client’s instructions on the same day.

Lim claimed that he only knew about the change in lawyers the next day, on Nov. 14.

On Nov. 14, lawyers representing the defendants of the accident claim sent a cheque of S$30,000 to CLC as the interim payment.

After receiving the cheque, CLC sent a letter to the client’s new lawyers but made no mention of the cheque.

The following day, on Nov. 15, the cheque was deposited into CLC’s office account.

The client filed a complaint with the Law Society on March 2020, originally claiming that Lim had misappropriated S$30,000 of his monies.

Two charges of professional misconduct

An inquiry committee decided there should be a formal investigation by a disciplinary tribunal.

Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon appointed Senior Judge Andrew Ang as the tribunal's president, with senior lawyer Philip Fong as a member.

The Law Society originally handed Lim three charges of “grossly improper conduct” in the discharge of his professional duties.

The first alleges that Lim received the S$30,000 “without just cause” and used it for payment even though his client discharged him.

A second charge alleges Lim failed to pay his client the sum of S$30,000 after receiving it on Nov. 13, 2019.

The third charge of misappropriating his client’s monies was withdrawn after the client declined to provide certain evidence the Law Society considered necessary.

Tribunal believes Lim's actions were "deliberate" and not "accidental"

The tribunal found Lim guilty of both charges.

For the first charge, they noted that evidence showed Lim was fully aware of his client’s discharging him ”with immediate effect” by Nov. 14, 2019.

However, despite having such knowledge, Lim deposited the cheque into his firm’s bank account.

The tribunal believed the act “was not accidental or inadvertent but deliberate”.

They pointed out that Lim had not presented evidence of “what actually happened to the money thereafter”.

The tribunal said they were also “troubled” that Lim did not mention the cheque in his reply to the client’s new lawyers on Nov. 14, 2019.

They said the “inference” was that Lim had “intentionally kept this fact” from the new lawyers and his client “until after he had dealt with the proceeds”.

Lim had also admitted during the disciplinary hearing that he was seeking to use the monies to pay his client’s “creditor” and his own fees.

Tribunal did not believe Lim had a "mere oversight"

For the second charge, the tribunal said Lim admits that by depositing the cheque into his firm’s office account and not into a client account, he had breached the legal profession's rules but argued it was “not a deliberate attempt to flout the rules but an oversight”.

Lim claimed that it did not amount to “grossly improper conduct” or “conduct unbefitting of an advocate or solicitor” and that he should not be sanctioned for it.

However, the tribunal disagreed, pointing out that all client’s money is to be treated with “utmost care”, and the requirement for law firm to have a client account has been “in existence for many years” based on the need to “protect client’s money”.

The tribunal found it “difficult to believe” that Lim, “despite having been a lawyer for 30 years, did not know of the requirement to have a client account, or that he had to pay client’s money into this account”.

They thus rejected Lim’s explanation that it was a “mere oversight”.

The disciplinary tribunal found that the two charges were proven beyond reasonable doubt and found Lim guilty.

Lim faces criminal charges

Lim was charged with criminal breach of trust, unlawful stalking and being an unauthorised person who acted as an advocate or solicitor in May 2022.

The criminal breach of trust charges pertains to the same complaint investigated by the disciplinary tribunal.

Lim denies the charges, and his trial will start on Aug. 29, 2023.

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Top image via Mothership and via Lim Tean on Facebook