A lawyer who is being sued by a former client over a R1.5m property deal is under investigation by the Legal Practice Council. Stock photo.The conduct of a Durban attorney is under scrutiny by the Legal Practice Council for refusing to pay a client more than R1.5m for a property deal. He has been holding the money in trust since October 2018.
Hogg, however, says he has supplied them three times and, if they were not in order, the transfer could not have taken place. Hogg says just before emigrating he sold his dentistry business and Vishal Junkeeparsad & Company were appointed as conveyancers at the behest of the buyer. The law firm then again requested the same documents to comply with Fica for the proceeds of the sale to be transferred to the trust.In correspondence over the ensuing year, he was told that the documents had to be quarantined, that the offices were closed for holidays, that people were on leave or at court and various other excuses.He was promised several times in early 2021 that the payment would be made.