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After years and years of trying to have my complaints about solicitors taken seriously, I wrote a Microsoft Word letter to the Lord Chancellor's Department, attaching it to email. I received in return the expected unhelpful response, also on a Word document as a facsimile of the Lord Chancellor's letterhead.
In a moment of mischief, and as a desperate publicity stunt, I decided to use the letterhead to create a palimpsest containing my own demands of the solicitors profession. I broadcast the letter by fax to a number of prominent solicitors' firms, mainly in London, which evoked the Press Notice below.
My reasoning was that, if it was acceptable for a solicitor who has been struck off for lying and stealing to continue holding out as being a legitimate solicitor, with the sanction of the Law Society and its members, then it would be as acceptable for me to pretend to be an officer of the LCD.
All I succeeded in doing was getting invited to New Scotland Yard for a cosy chat. I have yet to learn my fate in the matter.
It is ironic that the legal system is utterly uninterested in serious complaints made against it, but if you so much as dare to take a member's name in vain, it powders its wigs, plumps out its gowns, and invokes the full majesty of THE LAW.
Anyway; enjoy this while it lasts: |
Update: Maybe some meaningful changes will occur in the near future. The Lord Chancellor seems determined to strip the legal professions of their privilege to regulate themselves. March 2005
The following Press Notice has been lifted from: Here Busted, now. 05 Aug 2004
The Law Society Gazette continues to report the incident here Feb 2007
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281/01 31 July 2001 FRAUDULENT REQUEST FOR MONEY "EXTRAORDINARY PRACTICE DIRECTION 218" A solicitor has received an e-mail request that, under Extraordinary Practice Direction 218, £47 sterling or ECU equivalent should be paid to a Mr Bantock's building society account. It appeared that the message had been sent by Rukhsana Wahab, a member of Legal Services Development Division (LSDD) staff at the Lord Chancellor's Department Headquarters. Another solicitor received a fax, also in Rukhsana Wahab's name, which contained a repetition of the request made in the e-mail. Neither the e-mail nor the fax was sent with the authorisation of the Lord Chancellor's Department or the knowledge of Ms Wahab. The matter has been reported to the Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard. Any information regarding this matter should be advised to Louise Joyce at LCD HQ (tel: 020-7210 8741; fax: 020-7210 0613; e-mail: louise.joyce@lcdhq.gsi.gov.uk) Lord Chancellor's Department Selborne House, 54 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QW www.open.gov.uk/lcd ENDS |
This was my misuse of the LCD's letterhead.
The Extraordinary Practice Direction 218 title was taken from Austin Mitchell's and Vincent Cable's Early Day Motion (EDM) of the same number, of the same year.
The Law Society Gazette reported thus:
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Crooked solicitors don't specialise in parting people and their money, I suppose.
PB