DWF paralegal rebuked after pasting witness signature onto unapproved statement

A paralegal at DWF has received a rebuke from the SRA after inaccurately transcribing a witness statement and pasting the witness’s signed statement of truth onto the transcribed version without her permission.

Korie Rose, a senior paralegal with over 10 years’ experience, was ordered to pay investigation costs of £300 over the incident, which related to a trial in October 2024.

A witness for Rose’s client sent a typed witness statement with handwritten amendments to him. Rose inaccurately transcribed the edits into a typed statement and pasted a screenshot of the signed statement of truth from the handwritten statement onto the transcribed statement without the witness's consent.

At the trial, the witness told the court that the statement included in the trial bundle was not the one she had signed.

Time was spent obtaining and distributing the witness’s original statement, and a further hearing had to be ordered when full explanation for how the transcribed statement came to exist couldn’t be provided.

Conduct breaches

Rose admitted his conduct breached both the regulator’s Code of Conduct by wasting court time, and Principle 2 of the SRA Principles 2019, which obliges legal professionals to act in a way that upholds public trust and confidence.

The regulator did also note that though court time was wasted, the trial was not impeded by the paralegal’s conduct.

The SRA also noted that Rose did not act in a dishonest way, and that there was no evidence of a pattern of misconduct on his part.