UnjustIS caches offline the full texts and originating urls of News content.
This page features news and news items relating to UnjustIS matters.
Follow the hyperlinks to the external source (opens in a new window) or an UnjustIS news sheet.
Most recently posted items top the list.
To report broken or outdated links please visit the Contacts section.
Solicitors and other lawyers making the bad news from 2003 to date: News Roundup
Essential developments and newly available information building news in the background. Essential
Use Ctrl+F to search this page - or use the Site Search facility to search all UnjustIS content.
News navigation
|
Title and description of item or excerpt. |
Links - the full story |
Date posted on UnjustIS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Family courts 'dispense injustice on routine basis' Family courts are accused of promoting "institutional injustice" in a report today from the think-think Civitas. Its author, Martin Mears, says the Human Rights Act has "made the courts into quasi-legislators". |
30 Dec |
|
|
Solicitor complaint system revised Consumers complaining about inadequate service from solicitors, will be able to win back up to £15,000 in compensation without having to go to court, under new rules announced yesterday... "Yesterday, Bridget Prentice, legal services minister, said that at present consumers who had a serious complaint against a solicitor were forced to go back to court if they wanted compensation in excess of £5,000. "After one poor experience with the legal profession, these consumers then have to hire another solicitor and undergo what can be a lengthy and expensive process," she said. The Law Society's record on complaints-handling has been the subject of sustained criticism from the legal services ombudsman, although the professional body itself claims the situation has been improving. In the new year a new Consumer Complaints Board, which has a lay majority, will oversee this area." |
30 Dec |
|
|
American watchdog moves in on British auditors AMERICAN financial regulators have flown to Britain to scour the books compiled by Britain’s top accounting firms, in their latest move to exploit wide-ranging powers introduced by Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, The Times has learnt. |
29 Dec |
|
|
Watchdog sharpens his competitive edge Companies that hold back potentially damaging information from the competition regulator are likely to face fines and embarrassing publicity, the new head of the Competition Commission has warned. |
28 Dec |
|
|
If one postman can steal £20m ... will we trust the mail again?
IT is an icon: the red postbox, relied upon by almost all of us every day.
It is a symbol of our trust that billions of bills and birthday cards will
arrive safely, thanks to one of Britain's biggest public services. |
26 Dec |
|
|
'IOU fraud' assets seizure fails An attempt to confiscate the assets of a financial consultant who stole £10m from a bank and investors has failed. Graham Price, 58, from Swansea, defrauded customers of £3m and left and IOU in the safe of the Halifax bank agency he in Gowerton. |
23 Dec |
|
|
Lawyers will be in minority on complaints watchdog The Scottish Executive has opted for the most radical option in reforming the legal profession's regulatory system, proposing an independent watchdog with a non-lawyer chairman and a non-lawyer majority. |
23 Dec |
|
|
Legal aid bill doubles for serious criminal cases CRIMINAL legal aid to Scotland's top lawyers has more than doubled in the past five years, a report revealed yesterday. |
22 Dec |
|
|
Postman ran £20m credit card and cheque fraud An asylum seeker who masterminded a £20 million stolen cheque and credit card fraud while working as a postman was facing a lengthy jail sentence yesterday. Dido Mayue-Belezika, 34, intercepted chequebooks and credit cards at the north London sorting office where he worked, passing them on to his brother-in-law who directed a gang of 220 people to steal millions from unsuspecting account holders across Britain. |
21 Dec |
|
|
Torys to pay out $30.2m to Hollinger Canadian leader Torys has agreed to pay $30.2m (£17.2m) to Hollinger International to settle an accusation of improper conduct in one of the biggest payouts ever from a major law firm. The settlement between the newspaper company, once owned by Lord Conrad Black, and the Toronto-based Torys, stems from the firm’s role in advising Hollinger International on the $2.1bn (£1.2bn) sale of newspaper assets to CanWest Global Communications in 2000. Hollinger International had claimed that Torys failed to inform the company that it was also advising two of Lord Black’s holding companies, Ravelston and Hollinger, which were also involved in the transaction. In Canada, law firms are required to gain client consent to advise multiple parties on a deal. See also: Hilton-v- Barker Booth & Eastwood. House of Lords |
18 Dec |
|
|
Solicitors urged to refund miners Solicitors who charged miners for "free" compensation advice are being urged to pay the money back. |
17 Dec |
|
|
'Greedy' lawyers to repay victims Inquiries that
followed The Times |
16 Dec |
|
|
'Baby broker' fraud trial dropped An American woman alleged to be at the centre of a high-profile internet adoption bid by a north Wales couple has been cleared of fraud charges. Alan and Judith Kilshaw from Flintshire tried to adopt twins from the US in 2001 and claimed they paid Tina Johnson £8,200 to facilitate the process. |
15 Dec |
|
|
Driver 4.5 times the limit walks free A DRIVER walked free from court despite being caught four and a half times the legal limit. |
13 Dec |
|
|
SFO lawyers quit en masse citing red tape The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has suffered a spate of resignations across its legal departments, losing four lawyers during the past three months alone. A total of eight lawyers, including two senior lawyers, have left this year, which is around 13 per cent of the total number of lawyers across the organisation. |
13 Dec |
|
|
Offers for Dana shares prompt scam warning THE case of the American cold-caller who offered a Glasgow grandmother twice what her Dana Petroleum shares were worth has heightened fears that unwary shareholders could be duped by a new twist on the boiler-room scam. |
12 Dec |
|
|
Society allays job loss fears after U-turn over complaints THE Law Society of Scotland has rebutted talk of potential job losses at its Edinburgh headquarters after the body's recent policy u-turn to favour an independent body to handle complaints about poor service by solicitors. |
12 Dec |
|
|
Three Solicitors Arrested In Fraud Probe LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - Three solicitors were among four men arrested in connection with a million pound mortgage fraud ring. Police raided five addresses in the Small Heath area of Birmingham and the Rusholme South area of Manchester on Thursday morning. |
11 Dec |
|
|
Judgment day looms for court system SCOTLAND'S creaking court system is facing its most radical shake-up for decades following the appointment of a new head of the judiciary. Advocates face losing their monopoly in senior courts, paper files would be replaced by computers, and television cameras would be allowed in under sweeping reforms to be considered by Lord Hamilton. |
11 Dec |
|
|
Former FD of Durex maker avoids fraud trial The Serious Fraud Office has failed for the second time to bring a case against five former directors of Durex makers SSL. |
10 Dec |
|
|
Corruption law overhaul outlined Proposals to simplify "fragmented, outdated and un-clear" corruption laws have been outlined by ministers. The government is determined to make it easier to prosecute bribery offences, after an attempt to update the laws failed last year. |
09 Dec |
|
|
Rise in missing trader fraud tackled One of the most costly types of value added tax fraud, known as 'missing trader fraud', is increasing, posing new problems for Revenue & Customs, which had succeeded in reducing it by 30 per cent between 2001-02 and 2004-05. |
09 Dec |
|
|
Barristers develop case management system Litigation solicitors at Finers Stephen Innocent (FSI) and barristers at 5 Raymond Buildings have begun using a Web-based case management system to manage electronic bundles of trial documents, co-ordinate their timetables, keep on top of deadlines and share case-related information securely. Briefbox, which was developed by a group of barristers and launched on 3 November, holds all case documents and related information on a centralised server, allowing lawyers who use it to create their own structured case repositories and work online with all manner of third-parties, who do not need to buy software licenses to use the system. (Excellent initiative, and about time, too. UJ) |
09 Dec |
|
|
Law lords ban evidence gained under torture The law lords heaped embarrassment on the Government over its anti-terror strategy for the second time in a year as they ruled that evidence obtained by torture should never be used in British courts. |
09 Dec |
|
|
City Slicker tipster found guilty Former Daily Mirror City Slicker share tipster James Hipwell has been found guilty of conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act. A private investor, Terry Shepherd, was convicted of a similar offence, while Hipwell's colleague, Anil Bhoyrul, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing. Update 01 Mar 2007 |
07 Dec |
|
|
Government 'squandering billions' Billions of pounds are being wasted by government departments which have failed to learn the lessons of the past, a Commons committee has warned. "Basic errors are repeated time and again," the Public Accounts Committee said, adding public services were marred by complexity and bureaucracy. |
06 Dec |
|
|
Identities of 800 civil servants stolen in £30m fraud Around 800 benefit workers discovered yesterday that their identities had been stolen as part of a £30m tax fraud. Staff at the Department of Work and Pensions in Glasgow were told by managers that their personal details, including national insurance numbers, may have been used to make fake tax credit claims. |
06 Dec |
|
|
Taxman slammed over £13bn VAT losses REVENUE & Customs has been strongly criticised for losing 'a mountain of money' - a black hole of almost £13bn in the nation's finances according to the most recent annual figures available, which is equivalent to 4p on income tax - by failing to clamp down on VAT evaders and diesel duty fraudsters. |
06 Dec |
|
|
£2.8m award for ambulance delay A woman who suffered brain damage
after taking an overdose has accepted £2.8m damages from an ambulance
service over delays in reaching her. Claire Burchell, 25, was living in
Cleveleys, Lancashire, in October 2001 when she took the overdose while
suffering from post-natal depression. She said the ambulance took 30 minutes
to reach her and there were "failures" in her treatment en route to
hospital. |
06 Dec |
|
|
Bigamous solicitor struck off A SOLICITOR stole £6,000 from a
late client's estate to pay for her bigamous marriage and honeymoon, a
tribunal heard. Marylena Shuti, 29, altered cheques and paid them into her
own bank account, the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal heard. In the
summer, she was jailed for six months. |
06 Dec |
|
|
New sleuth put on the trail of Langbar's £365m deposits Serious Fraud Office lawyer Stephen Myers will take over as case controller today of the formal investigation into Langbar International, the suspended Aim-listed company. |
05 Dec |
|
|
U.S. 'boiler room' scams target UK investors LONDON (Citywire) - The problem of illegal U.S. boiler room investment scams targeting UK investors has reached huge proportions, a senior source at a U.S. regulator has told Citywire. The source, who works in the front line of the National Association of Securities Dealers' (NASD) scam-busting activities, said there were up to 20 unscrupulous firms, generally with offices on Wall Street, that are focused exclusively on cold calling UK investors to sell them worthless shares in companies that exist only in name or are entirely controlled by the broker. He said the scale of the problem was "huge". |
05 Dec |
|
|
Jail for mortgage fraud millionaire A multi-millionaire property dealer who launched an empire using fraudulent mortgage applications was jailed today for two years. Father-of-three David Dale, 49, of Bryncoch, Port Talbot, South Wales, saw his empire crumble today when a judge confiscated £4.2million and ordered him to pay £100,000 towards prosecution costs. |
03 Dec |
|
|
Closure of Tax Credits Portal HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) take fraud very seriously and as part of their ongoing compliance work have identified and stopped attempts to defraud the tax credit system by making claims through the tax credits e-portal. In the light of this, HMRC has closed the e-portal while it develops new checks to ensure that the system remains secure. |
eGov Monitor see also: |
03 Dec |
|
Watchdog warns of sharp rise in scams The City watchdog has renewed its warning to consumers to be wary of getting caught up in share scams amid fresh evidence of a sharp rise in “boiler room” activity. Boiler rooms are so called because they involve high pressured selling techniques to encourage UK consumers to invest large sums of money on worthless shares. |
03 dec |
|
|
Law Society closes down city solicitor A SOLICITOR has had his Salford branch shut down amid concerns over the way the business has been run. The Law Society is investigating concerns about JC McDermott & Co in Bolton Road, Irlams o’th’ Height. |
03 Dec |
|
|
Solicitor barred A solicitor who used his clients’ money when he ran his business from a hut in his garden at Harlow, Essex, was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Michael Blow, 55, had a £546,000 “black hole” in his accounts. Some of the money will have to be found by the solicitors’ insurance fund. |
02 Dec |
|
|
£55m fraudster gets 12 years jail An international tax fraudster who cost the Inland Revenue £55m has been jailed for 12-and-a-half years. Ian Leaf, 51, used an array of real and bogus companies worldwide to pull off what has been called "the largest swindle of its kind" in Britain. |
02 Dec |
|
|
Mayer Brown settles A&L negligence case Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw has settled a £350,000 claim against FTSE 100 bank Alliance & Leicester, after it alleged negligence in allowing the fraudulent opening of an account in the firm’s name. |
01 Dec |
|
|
Harman's lawyer sister guilty of leaking papers Sarah Harman, a leading family lawyer, was last night found guilty of "conduct unbefitting a solicitor" for misleading the court and passing confidential court papers to her sister, Harriet Harman, then solicitor general. |
Guardian see also: and a balancing view: Observer 04 Dec |
01 Dec |
|
The market where 'caveat emptor' has become a charter for fraud The statisticians marked 2005 as a record year for the Alternative Investment Market, the London Stock Exchange's market for small and growth companies. |
30 Nov |
|
|
The Pensions Commission has published its 2005 second report. |
30 Nov |
|
|
Relief for Halifax fraud victims THE Halifax has finally agreed to
pay back the victims of IOU swindler Graham Price - with interest. |
30 Nov |