I once knew a solicitor (a ex solicitor of mine) who due to the death of his office partner refused to open any post that was addressed to his ex partner for 6 months.
This only came to light when the law society were doing a inspection of the practice because of not recieving a reply to some of their corresponadance.
It then also came to light that the office public liability had not been renewed either.
His punishment for this was to be struck off for 2 years, although he never did return due to a mental breakdown.
But I often wondered how may clients during this 6 month period failed to turn up in court because they were not informed of a court date and lost the case because of not attending.