A solicitor has been struck off the roll after a disciplinary tribunal found that he improperly certified documents through an online platform without viewing the original documents.
Joe Morgan, a director of Document Certifier Ltd, operated a document certification website that allowed clients to upload copies of documents for certification. Mr Morgan maintained that documents uploaded to the platform amounted to original documents and that his practice complied with professional requirements.
However, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal rejected this argument, finding that, as a matter of common sense and logic, uploaded files were only copies of original documents. By certifying those uploads as “true copies of the originals”, Mr Morgan was found to have acted improperly.
Mr Morgan, who was admitted as a solicitor in 2019, had previously been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2022 for similar conduct. That rebuke followed an agreement that he would not continue offering certification services in the same manner. The tribunal concluded that he breached that agreement by persisting with the same practice.
The tribunal found that Mr Morgan failed to act with integrity and failed to maintain public confidence in the profession. It also determined that clients were harmed because they were provided with documents presented as properly certified, but which could not in fact be relied upon.
In its ruling, the tribunal noted that Mr Morgan showed no remorse or insight into the seriousness of his conduct. It concluded that allowing him to continue practising would pose a risk to clients and to the reputation of the legal profession. As a result, he was struck off the roll of solicitors.
