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Date posted on UnjustIS

Inheritance tax blow for widows

Countless widows could see a massive slice of their estate go to the taxman when they die because the paperwork needed to qualify for more generous death tax allowances has been lost or destroyed. The Government recently allowed married couples and those in civil partnerships to transfer their £312,000 inheritance tax nil-rate bands, giving them a joint allowance of £624,000. Above this, estates are taxed at 40% on death..."But solicitors store most documents for just six years - and grants of probate for 12 - after which they are destroyed.".

This is Money

24 Apr

Solicitors and claims management companies investigated for fraud

More than 10 solicitors firms and a number of claims management companies are under investigation by the Insurance Fraud Bureau for taking on fraudulent claims. Intelligence and data has led the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) directly to the firms after ongoing investigations. The bureau is speaking to 13 police forces across the country, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Solicitors Regulation Authority about criminal action. John Beadle Chairman of the IFB said in Claims Management magazine “The IFB estimates that over the last 3.5 years, in excess of £40m has been paid by law firms to accident management companies for claims which are entirely fictitious (i.e. accidents which never actually happened in the first place).”

Legal & Medical

24 Apr

'Your solicitor, qualified to answer' - our campaign to promote solicitors

'Your solicitor, qualified to answer' is a major national advertising and PR campaign to promote solicitors to the public. Our aim is to encourage consumers to use solicitors by promoting their services and highlighting the unique selling points solicitors have to offer. Running from April to June, the campaign will focus on the reasons why solicitors are the only sensible choice for consumers. They are:
more expert and reliable than other providers of legal or quasi-legal services
properly regulated
excellent value for money

The Law Society

22 Apr

Student gets criminal record for sake of 90p

A student told today how she gained a criminal record because she did not have 90p on her Oyster card. Ashley Williams boarded a bendy bus without realising her pre- pay card did not have enough money on it for the fare. But before she could get off to buy a ticket, the doors shut and she was carried to the next stop where inspectors boarded. Despite the bus driver appealing on her behalf, the inspectors refused to believe her explanation. When Ms Williams, 20, rang Transport For London to complain, she was told she would be taken to court. Stratford magistrates fined her £120 and ordered her to pay costs after finding her guilty of not having a valid ticket while travelling on the No 38 bus from Hackney to her home in Stoke Newington last September. Ms Williams, who is studying fashion at the University of East London, said: "I'm really upset and angry - it was not intentional. They took the stance that I was a fare dodger. They would not even believe my details." Her court case took place during her first-year exams. Her mother, Anne Williams, a college lecturer, said: "She has never before even had her name taken, let alone been given a penalty fare. "Getting a criminal record for an innocent mistake - and a first offence - is ridiculous and unjust.

This is London

18 Apr

Interventions soar as firms feel squeeze

The number of law firms in England and Wales shut down by the profession’s regulator has almost trebled in 2008 compared with the early months of last year, new data show. So-called ‘interventions’ – the ‘last-resort’ measure in which the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) sends in an agent to close a practice, returning papers and cash to their owners – have surged to their highest level for five years. A spate of insolvencies resulting from a tougher economic climate, together with greater exposure of mortgage fraud (in which solicitors may be implicated) were cited as possible causes of the upturn. In the last six months, there has been a steep increase in the number of interventions resulting from suspected dishonesty. Sole practitioners have borne the brunt overall, accounting for 80% of interventions this year.

Law Society Gazette

18 Apr

Jobless lorry driver 'sold' The Ritz hotel to businessman in £250million con

When businessman (Edited) was offered the chance to buy the Ritz Hotel for a knockdown price of £250million it was an opportunity that sounded too good to be true. And it was indeed too good to be true. The hotel, with an estimated market value of around £600million, was not on the market. Yet two conmen managed to persuade Mr (Edited), co-founder of a large and reputable property company, that the hotel's owners, the Barclay brothers, were prepared to sell it at a bargain price...Anthony Lee and Patrick Dolan convinced an intermediary that they represented the Barclays and even had a team of lawyers on board to give the plan respectability. Negotiations went on for months and eventually Mr (Edited), of (Edited), borrowed £1million from Dutch businessman and financier (Edited) to pay Lee a deposit in December 2006 for the release of 27 boxes of purchase documentation held by his solicitors. But the papers did not exist and the Barclays were oblivious of the ruse. Lee turned out to be an unemployed lorry driver and bankrupt with no connections whatsoever to the brothers. Dolan, too, was unemployed. The elaborate fraud emerged yesterday in a judgment handed down at the High Court in London as the two victims of the fraud battled over the £ 1million which was immediately spent by Lee and Dolan.

This is London

18 Apr

Now, even the pro bono units can't afford to stay open

While lawyers are fighting their corner on legal aid, the squeeze on public funds is hitting frontline legal services such as law centres who have much less muscle to resist. Mostly known and appreciated only by their local communities, they struggle to muster a campaign when the chips are down. The Mary Ward Legal Centre in Holborn, Central London, is typical of how the legal aid shake-up is unwittingly hitting some of those most deserving of legal help. The centre provides pro bono legal services to more than 1,000 of London’s needy a year, including debt counselling. Its pro bono unit is faced with imminent closure, with a six-month respite until October to give it one last chance to raise the funds it needs to keep going.

Times Online

17 Apr

Job: Events assistant, LAW SOCIETY

"Representing 135,000 solicitors in England and Wales, the Law Society's remit is to serve society by improving access to the law, supporting and representing solicitors and setting the standards that underpin the profession's reputation" (They just can't help lying, can they? UJ). London £26,169

Guardian

14 Apr

Hetherington: Fox Hayes, Abbey, Square Mile

Mrs K.C. writes: I read in Financial Mail some time ago the result of the Financial Services & Markets Tribunal hearing about solicitor Fox Hayes, but there has been no further news. I foolishly invested practically all my money, about £60,000, in shares sold by brokers represented by Fox Hayes. I have recovered only £5,000. This has gone on for so long, I'm now almost giving up. I will be 93 in June.

"Leeds solicitor Fox Hayes, which is licensed as an investment adviser by the Financial Services Authority, stupidly and corruptly teamed up with a network of crooked boiler room share peddlers. Throughout 2003 and 2004, Financial Mail repeatedly warned that the firm was fronting for known tricksters posing as stockbrokers based in Spain. Privately, I gave full details to Fox Hayes, proving that it was lending its name to mailshots from firms run by people who would never in a million years get a licence from the FSA, who did not have a licence from Spain's financial watchdog, and who were selling shares so rotten that I'm surprised anyone gave you as much as £5,000 for them..."It cannot be right that a firm or an individual can commit an offence, pay a fine that is less than victims have actually lost and then carry on as if nothing has happened."

This is Money

13 Apr

Family outrage as uninsured hit and run driver who killed boy, 4, walks free from court

The parents of a boy killed by a hit-and-run driver were appalled yesterday after being told the offender could not be jailed. Jason Diprose, 21, who claimed to have learnt to drive on a beach, had been repeatedly prosecuted for going behind the wheel without a licence. Last July, as Gordon and Jennifer O'Callaghan's four-year-old son Casey crossed a one-way street near his home, the jobless labourer reversed up it the wrong way, knocking him over. Instead of stopping to help, Diprose then drove forwards, running over the child again. As Casey's distraught mother rushed to his aid, Diprose went to the home of the person from whom he borrowed the car and tried to persuade them to say they had been driving.

Daily Mail

11 Apr

FSA appeals tribunal decision to halve solicitor's £150,000 penalty

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has made its first application to appeal a tribunal decision, one that slashed the penalty it imposed on Leeds-based solicitors Fox Hayes in half. The regulator has applied for permission to appeal the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal decisions of 24 September 2007 and 6 March 2008, one of which saw the tribunal cut the FSA penalty from £150,000 to £70,000. An application has been made because the regulator believes that errors of law have been made in interpreting the relevant regulations and the penalty now imposed does not fit the misconduct. Fox Hayes was found to have approved a number of financial promotions for unauthorised overseas companies between February 2003 and June 2004. The FSA found that the solicitors had not taken ‘reasonable steps to ensure that the financial promotions were clear, fair and not misleading,’ according to the tribunal notes. The regulator also said that the firm had reason to doubt that the overseas company would deal with clients in the UK in an honest and reliable way.

Citywire

10 Apr

Lawyer who killed his wife is released after just two years - and inherits £950,000 from her estate

A wealthy lawyer who killed his wife after she had an affair is set to inherit nearly £1million from her will after being freed from jail. Christopher Lumsden, 54, was said to have "snapped" after his wife Alison, 53, announced she was leaving him for a family friend. He attacked her at their £1.4million mansion, slashing her on the face and neck with a knife so badly a pathologist could not count the number of wounds she had suffered.

This is London

08 Apr

Solicitor guilty of fraud jailed

A solicitor who stole more than £1m from a disabled client has been jailed for 10 years at Machester Crown Court. Thomas McGoldrick, 59, of Faulkners Lane, Mobberley, Cheshire, lived a life of "extravagance" while taking the money from client Keith Anderson. Mr Anderson, 45, from Croydon, had been awarded £1.8m after he was severely injured in a road crash. Belfast-born McGoldrick was convicted of 59 counts of fraud in February and was sentenced on Monday. He was £1.4m in debt when his firm, who had practices called McGoldricks in Altrincham, Greater Manchester and Croydon, took on Mr Anderson's case.

BBC

08 Apr

Prosecuting lawyers could sit in judgment if CPS ban is lifted

Hundreds of state prosecutors could be free to become judges under top-level moves to end a ban on Crown Prosecution Service employees entering the judiciary, The Times has learnt Baroness Scotland, QC, the Attorney-General, and Sir Ken Mac-donald, QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, are both strongly in favour of the changes, saying that it would make the judiciary more diverse by widening the pool of women and ethnic minority lawyers who could be judges.

Times Online

07 Apr

Fiddling solicitor struck off

A SOLICITOR who took money from the dead for work he had not carried out has been thrown out of the profession. Christopher Dudzinski, 49, of Dudzinski and Partners, Butts Court, Leeds, claimed thousands of pounds from the estates of late clients and ploughed the cash into his firm. Investigators found he also told customers he was investing their money when in fact it was being kept in the firm's accounts. Financial records were not properly written up and an investigation in 2006 revealed a £25,975 'black hole' in the client accounts. Dudzinski accepted he withdrew clients' money before he billed them for his work, the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal in London heard. "A large part of the shortfall, £21,230, was in respect of costs transferred from client to office account in circumstances where bills had not been delivered to the client," said Jonathan Goodwin, for the Solicitors' Disciplinary Authority. Dudzinski was acting for the executors of a will when he took £2,350 from the estate of a dead man after his affairs had been completed. When questioned, the lawyer said he thought he deserved more for the work done previously.

Yorkshire Evening Post

01 Apr

News organisation in new bid to overturn 'obscene' no win, no fee libel

A group of 22 organisations is lobbying the government for radical change in the regime controlling the Conditional Fee Agreement system under which lawyers bring libel claims against media groups on a no-win, no-fee basis, it has emerged. The disclosure came as David Price, of Fleet Street-based law firm David Price Solicitors and Advocates, discussed the workings of and reasons for the Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) system at the IBC Defamation Conference in London on March 11. The CFA system allows lawyers to bring libel cases against media organisations, on behalf of claimants who otherwise could not afford to sue, on a no-win, no-fee basis. If the case succeeds, the defendant pays the claimant's costs. But the defendant also then has to pay the solicitors a "success fee" which can be as much as their normal fee - meaning that the solicitor charges up to double his normal fees, taking the charges to as much as £900 per hour for a partner in a law firm.

Press Gazette

27 Mar