Fraud warning signs can trigger duties beyond the client relationship

An apparently valid foreign power of attorney is not always the end of a conveyancing lawyer’s enquiries. On 17 March, the Privy Council dismissed Fay Chang Rhule’s appeal in a Jamaican disciplinary case involving a forged authority used to sell jointly owned land.

The Board distinguished negligence duties from the profession’s obligation not to facilitate suspected fraud. Where warning signs point to a forged authority, further checks may be required under Canon I(b), even without a private-law duty owed to the complainant.

The appeal concerned that legal principle. The adequacy of the particular warning signs and the sanction were not being reconsidered. The Board also questioned, without deciding, the assumption that no duty of care arose.

Complete official HTML judgment reviewed, paragraphs 1–26. This is a Jamaica-origin decision. The Board did not decide whether a private duty of care existed on these facts or reassess the sanction. Later treatment not checked.