Law watchdog fines lawyer Paula Marie Fletcher for ‘demeaning’ emails to Esther Rockett during Universal Medicine trial
A Northern NSW lawyer representing “socially harmful cult” Universal Medicine has been fined over a “demeaning” letter to a blogger during a defamation trial.
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A Northern Rivers lawyer representing a “socially harmful cult” has been fined over a letter to a blogger.
Universal Law solicitor Paula Marie Fletcher was representing “cult” leader and Universal Medicine founder Serge Benhayon in a defamation case in 2018.
Blogger Esther Rockett claimed in internet posts that Mr Benhayon led a “socially harmful cult” and was “a charlatan” who “preys on cancer patients”.
After a trial, a jury found the imputations Ms Rockett published about Mr Benhayon were “substantially true”.
Mr Benhayon had to pay Ms Rockett’s legal fees that totalled about $1.2m.
During the trial, the court heard about unprofessional letters Ms Fletcher sent to Ms Rockett.
Ms Fletcher sent two “discourteous” letters in September 2017 to Ms Rockett, one 31 pages in length, which arrived the day of her father’s funeral, the court heard and a later judgment detailed.
Justice Julia Lonergan described in a judgment the tone of the emails as “unnecessarily peremptory and demeaning”.
“There was no order or compulsion requiring the letter be sent that day,” she said in a judgment where she referred the letters to the Office of the Legal Services Commission.
“The choice of date seems to have been deliberate.
“Most concerningly, the letter contains a number of personal insults, directed to the defendant, about her character, professionalism, motivation and probity.
“They are at best, unprofessional and most discourteous.
“They are at worst, bullying and harassment, deliberately deployed at a time when the defendant is likely to be distracted, sad and vulnerable, with the aim of demoralising her about the litigation she was defending,” the judgment reads.
Ms Rockett said the correspondence was now subject to a non-publication order for privacy reasons.
“She lettered me on the day of my father’s funeral despite my explicit request that she desist with correspondence during that time out of respect for my family,” she said.
The decision to refer the matter to the OLSC for consideration of unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct was made in June 2019.
In 2022, the commission deemed the emails to be of “unsatisfactory professional conduct” and fined Ms Fletcher $1500.
“Those letters were discourteous, something which I have acknowledged from the outset of the complaint and apologised for,” Ms Fletcher said.
“All other allegations made against me in a complaint which were put forward by one individual were found to be unsubstantiated.”
Ms Rockett has requested a Commissioner’s review of the LSC’s decision on the three further allegations in her complaint and seeks a harsher penalty in her review.
“Her conduct toward me, when considered over the period I was self-representing, went beyond discourteous and constituted deliberate harassment,” she said.
The referral judgment details that Ms Fletcher’s daughter, Emmalee, was the first wife of Mr Benhayon’s eldest son, Michael.
It is understood Mr Benhayon is no longer a client of Universal Law.
In a previous judgment in the matter, Justice Lonergan said it was unclear whether Universal Law had any affiliation with Universal Medicine or whether the name similarities were coincidental.
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Originally published as Law watchdog fines lawyer Paula Marie Fletcher for ‘demeaning’ emails to Esther Rockett during Universal Medicine trial
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