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Date posted on UnjustIS

QCs’ legal case exposes Law Society tensions

An arcane book about lawyers’ disciplinary rules has spawned an unusual legal action that highlights growing tensions in the tangled new system for regulating the profession. The two QCs who wrote the book have asked the High Court to order the Law Society, the solicitors’ body, which owns the copyright, to permit them to reprint the key code of conduct for free in another book they have written. Critics say the case highlights conflicts of interest in the dual regulatory and representative role of the Law Society, which has a duty to publicise the code to its members and a financial interest in selling its own books on the same subject. David McIntosh, former Law Society president and chair of the City of London Law Society, said the new regulatory structure was “on trial” ahead of government reforms that some fear could lead to even tougher rules.

Financial Times

26 Feb

Lawyers urge bugging guarantees

The Law Society is calling for clearer legislation to guarantee that conversations between lawyers and their clients are not bugged by police. Law Society President Andrew Holroyd said current regulations are both complex and confusing.

BBC

23 Feb

How to start a business

Starting a business can be an ultra-daunting step. Luckily, a huge amount of free help and advice is available - both face-to-face and online. More focused, specialist help is also accessible for a fee. Here is Times Money's beginner's guide:..."Once you have established that an idea is worth pursuing, however, business consultants, accountants and lawyers can offer the next level of time and expertise. Reliable professionals can be located through Business Link and the Law Society website at lawsociety.org.uk. It may be worth taking legal advice on the form that your business will take - as a sole trader, limited liability partnership (LLP), for example." (Take extreme care - see: Lawyers for your Business and Rogue Traders. UJ)

Business Times Online

23 Feb

FSA vows crackdown on mortgage fraud

Mortgage fraudsters are facing a crackdown by the Financial Services Authority, whose head of financial crime warned yesterday that hundreds of cases were in its sights. Vowing to stamp out the "virus" of criminality which led to higher costs for every homeowner in the land, Philip Robinson told the Financial Times that he was targeting crooks who used "mortgage mules" - people with no property-owning history - to front housing purchases. Dodgy mortgage intermediaries and dishonest valuers would also be tracked down. Mr Robinson argued that generally law-abiding purchasers, who claimed to earn more than they really did to buy properties that would otherwise have been beyond their reach, concerned him less than the hard-core criminals whose activities were going unnoticed because investigators could not "see the wood for the trees". He said: "The organised criminals are the key. They are the infected cells in the system, which affect other cells in their vicinity like a virus. Our task is to toughen up the cell walls and fight the original infection."

Financial Times

23 Feb

McGoldrick investigated before

A LAWYER who stole more than £1m from a disabled man to feed his champagne lifestyle was investigated for financial irregularities more than ten years ago, the M.E.N. reveal. `Bent' solicitor Thomas McGoldrick, 59, was described by police as `shameless, selfish, greedy and calculating' after being found guilty of false accounting, money laundering, forgery and obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception. He stole the money from Keith Anderson who had been awarded £1.8 million damages as a result of a road accident which left him paralysed from the chest down. And McGoldrick, who lives in a luxury home in Mobberley, Cheshire, was only caught when Mr Anderson had £200 left and the Law Society called in the police to investigate...In 1997 he was criticised by the Law Society after more than £40,000 went missing from a client's account.
This was followed by a series of other misdemeanours relating to his accounts and the financial management of his firm, but despite serious concerns, the Law Society allowed him to continue practising as a lawyer until 2004. (The Law Society is no more than a corrupt gangsters' union. See: News Roundup) Update April 2008 - Mcgoldrick jailed for ten years

Manchester Evening News

23 Feb

Solicitor guilty of £1.2m fraud

A solicitor who conned more than £1m from a disabled client has been found guilty of fraud.
Thomas McGoldrick, 59, of Faulkners Lane, Mobberley, Cheshire, had denied the charges at Manchester Crown Court. The court heard he lived a life of "extravagance" while taking the money from client Keith Anderson. Mr Anderson, 45, of Croydon, had been awarded £1.8m following a crash which left him paralysed but McGoldrick claimed he had "gifted" him the money. Mr Anderson was paid damages after the accident in Croydon in November 1996, which left him paralysed from the chest down. The solicitor, who had practices called McGoldricks in Altrincham, Greater Manchester and Croydon, went on to take about £1.2m of the cash.

BBC

22 Feb

Justice Ministry drops high-cost cases contract after low take-up

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has scrapped its contract for very high-cost criminal cases (VHCCs) after just 130 barristers signed up. Instead it is putting together a new line-up that will offer barristers a second chance to join the panel. The MoJ and the Legal Services Commission (LSC) are consulting on the new contract after the poor take-up rate and plan to send it out next week, effectively cancelling the agreement with those barristers and solicitors that already signed up. Around 2,300 barristers were given the chance to agree to the original contract - which was intended to reduce fees in major criminal cases - when it was sent out in January. While it was unpopular with barristers, virtually all of the 330 law firms that applied for the panel signed up. In a letter to the profession, Bar Council chairman Timothy Dutton QC commented: “As things stand, no solicitor or barrister has entered into a binding contract with the LSC.

Legal Week

21 Feb

‘Barely trained’ paralegals will be forced to take CPS cases to trial

Plans are due to go ahead for thousands of trials a year to be prosecuted by non-lawyers, even though the paralegals themselves say that they are insufficiently trained, The Times has learnt. An internal survey for the Crown Prosecution Service has found that only half the 400 paralegals who will take on the contested — or “not guilty” — trials felt that they had had enough training. A third said that they were under pressure to do court work that fell beyond their abilities. The draft findings come amid growing concerns about the impact of government cost-cutting on the standards of criminal justice, including the use of junior barristers to defend some of the country’s most high-profile criminal trials.

Times Online

19 Feb

Legal aid: war of words erupts

Barristers and the Government cannot agree on the terms of a new payment scheme. While they argue is the public being let down?

Scores of top-level terror trials as well as the most complex murder and rape cases are at risk of being run by second-rank lawyers after more than 2,000 Queen’s Counsel and junior barristers boycotted new pay rates. In what is effectively a stand-off over the proposed cuts in fees, only 130 of 2,300 barristers in England and Wales who had been selected to handle the 100 most complex trials a year have signed the contracts. A furious dispute has now erupted between the profession and the body that runs the £2 billion legal aid scheme, with each side taking counsel’s opinion on whether the law has been broken. The Bar Council has accused the Legal Services Commission (LSC) of “unacceptable” behaviour and the commission has accused the Bar of bully-boy tactics, saying that junior barristers feel under pressure to decline to sign the new contracts or join the panel that will take the complex cases.

Times Online

19 Feb

Tensions rise over legal regulator plan

Foreign lawyers would be driven from the City to other financial centres under a crackdown planned by the new solicitors' regulator, leading legal industry figures have warned. Top law firms say the proposal to toughen entry requirements to root out incompetent overseas lawyers would have the sideeffect of making it more difficult for well-qualified overseas solicitors to work in Britain. The row is a sign of emerging tensions between the legal profession and its regulator, which has more powers and independence under reforms aimed at giving consumers more protection.

Financial Times

19 Feb

Clients' deeds worry as solicitors close up

MYSTERY surrounds the closure of a Fylde coast solicitors' office with no warning to clients.
Customers turned up at the offices of John Gibbs and Co in Brighton Avenue, Cleveleys, earlier this week to find the doors locked and a notice posted asking them to contact solicitors in Manchester. The sudden closure has caused panic among some clients, worried about personal documents held by the firm.

Blackpool Gazette

18 Feb

Bankrupt lawyer’s creditors set to meet to settle debts

CREDITORS are to meet to settle the debts of a Huddersfield solicitor who was made bankrupt 14 years ago. Darrell Mernagh, who had a practice at Lion Chambers in John William Street, was declared bankrupt in 1994 after a petition was filed by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The lawyer, now 55, of Luke Lane, Thongsbridge, had been under investigation by law industry watchdogs when the order was made at Huddersfield County Court. His business was shut after intervention by the solicitors’ complaints bureau to protect the interests of his clients and his files were transferred to another law firm...The final meeting will take place on February 21 at Merchant’s Quay in Shipley to approve payments to the creditors and release the trustee, Raymond Stuart Claughton of Rushton’s insolvency practitioners.

Huddersfield Daily Examiner

15 Feb

Some rather odd conduct from the Law Society

Why is the Law Society so eager to stop details of its own code being included in a practice guide for solicitors, asks Joshua Rozenberg.
Have you heard the one about the two QCs who are suing the Law Society? Like all lawyers, Andrew Hopper and Gregory Treverton-Jones must have advised countless clients over the years to avoid litigation like the plague...Two years ago, the Law Society delegated all its regulatory powers to a new body called the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This body is frequently described as "independent" by Peter Williamson, the solicitor who chairs it. We shall see shortly how independent it really is. (It isn't. see: Consumer Complaints Service. UJ)

Telegraph

15 Feb

Solicitor ‘stole £1m from disabled client’s damages’

A solicitor enjoyed a life of “obscene extravagance” after stealing more than a million pounds from a disabled client, a court was told yesterday. Thomas McGoldrick, 59, spent thousands on foreign holidays, joined an exclusive golf club and lavished money on his children, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester was told. The father of two, who lives in a £650,000 home in Mobberley, Cheshire, financed his lifestyle by stealing more than £1 million from a disabled client as the solicitor’s firm struggled with massive debts, it is alleged...“I’m suggesting you are a dishonest, bent, dishonourable solicitor and have been for years,” David Friesner, for the prosecution, said. Mr McGoldrick denies all charges. The trial continues. (Solicitors are not bent - they are simply "mistaken", or "misappropriate funds". They never lie, and they never steal. After all, they are Officers of the Supreme Court. UJ)

Times Online

15 Feb

Legal firm hits back in miners cash fee claim

A SOUTH Yorkshire firm of solicitors is the only firm still refusing to repay fees taken from miners claiming compensation, The Star can reveal. Raleys in Barnsley, which has made at least £40 million from claims, is to face a tribunal over demands to repay pitmen involved in a South Yorkshire trial which uncovered hundreds of cases of alleged double-charging, says the Legal Complaints Service. But Ian Firth, senior partner at Raleys, said he was surprised the LCS should single them out for criticism. And he said it was incorrect to imply the firm received payments from miners' compensation because the money had been passed on to the NUM.

The Star (S. Yorks)

14 Feb

FSA clamps down on fraudulent mortgage brokers

Nearly 70 mortgage brokers face legal action after being suspected of mortgage fraud by the Financial Services Authority. The City watchdog said that it has referred one third of 200 brokers under investigation to its enforcement division, after tip-offs from mortgage lenders about suspected fraudulent mortgage applications. The FSA's head of fraud said the problem was "bigger and more widespread" than previously thought and was particularly rife among new-build property development schemes, potentially costing the mortgage industry millions of pounds...In a speech to the mortgage industry yesterday, Philip Robinson, financial crime & intelligence director at the FSA, said: "The greater threat is of organised rings, using mortgage and property fraud to make significant profits. They can include brokers, solicitors, valuers and other professionals in the property market.

Times Online

14 Feb

Lawyer claims £900,000 was 'gift'

A solicitor accused of fraud has told a court he was "staggered" when a man left disabled in a crash gave him half of the £1.8m he was awarded in damages. Thomas McGoldrick, 59, said he thought "Why not?" and took the cash, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard. The solicitor is alleged to have forged a letter from client Keith Anderson, of Croydon, London, purporting to award him £900,000.

BBC

14 Feb

JAILED SOLICITOR ORDERED TO PAY ESTATE

A city solicitor who stole £175,000 from the estates of two dead clients has been ordered to pay just over £13,000 by a judge.Guy Blackwood stole £82,749 from the estate of Hannah Bailey and £92,500 from that of Arthur March between 1998 and 2001. He used the money to educate his children privately and to pay for cars and holidays.

Express & Echo

09 Feb

Crooked solicitor is banned

 crooked Wolverhampton solicitor who bought a house with his clients’ money has been banned from practising by a disciplinary tribunal. Sudesh Chamba financed the deal with £55,000 of cash from people he was representing when the sale of his own home fell through, the tribunal was told. Investigators found the 47-year-old had also settled a dispute with a former partner in his Wolverhampton firm by paying him another £30,000 which he again took from his client funds.

Express and Star

09 Feb

Lawyers forced to repay millions taken from sick miners’ compensation

Law firms that grew rich by exploiting sick miners are to be forced to repay tens of millions of pounds that they wrongly sliced from their clients’ compensation. The multimillion-pound payback follows an investigation by The Times into a series of abuses linked to the Department of Trade and Industry’s £7.5 billion coal health compensation scheme. An estimated 75,000 former pit workers are likely to receive payments under a nationwide scheme that has been agreed in principle by the Government. The cost to those solicitors who improperly deducted money from awards given to elderly and vulnerable clients may top £50 million.

Times Online

08 Feb

Lawyers will repay ill pitmen

Sick miners are set to get back millions of pounds from solicitors who wrongly took a cut from their compensation pay. The Legal Complaints Service estimates over 75,000 could be affected because solicitors charged for services already paid by the Government. It now plans to write to 500,000 ex-miners advising them to check they received full compensation. The move follows a trial in South Yorkshire which has uncovered 300 cases of alleged doublecharging, costing £200,000. About £7.5billion has so far been paid out by the Coal Health Compensation Scheme to 760,000 ex-miners suffering from respiratory diseases. Labour MP Kevin Barron said: "Some solicitors have got a lot richer out of this scheme."

Daily Mirror

08 Feb

Sick miners could get millions off solicitors

SICK miners could be repaid millions of pounds by solicitors who wrongly took a cut from compensation payments. A pilot scheme in South Yorkshire has uncovered more than 300 new cases of alleged double-charging by solicitors to the tune of £200,000. Scores of miners have already received settlements with the help of the Law Society's legal complaints service (LCS).

Northern Echo

08 Feb

LCS reveals plans to publish complaints

The Legal Complaints Service (LCS) is to press ahead with plans to publish detailed information on upheld, adjudicated complaints against solicitors and keep it on public record for three years, the Gazette has learned. Ahead of Thursday’s launch of the second phase of its consultation on publishing solicitor complaints, the LCS chief executive said publication was its preferred option. She added that it was in the consumer interest and would act as a kind of league table for the profession. Deborah Evans said: ‘Such a tool would be fantastic for the consumer, but we also believe it would improve standards within the profession. It would shape the profession in the same way that this kind of proposal has shaped and driven demand in schools.’ The LCS plans to publish complaints on its website against the name of the firm and/or individual practitioners. Paper copies of complaints would be available via email or telephone request.

Law Society Gazette

01 Feb

Judges still have too much influence

Do the judiciary and executive still have a stranglehold over the way judges are appointed, ensuring a perpetuation of a white, male, middle-class oligarchy? The answer, according to the Law Society, is a resounding "yes". It is more than year since the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) was set up as a new independent and transparent body overseeing judicial appointments, and to create more diversity. But the society believes that little beneath the surface has changed. In its response this month to Gordon Brown's Governance of Britain proposals for reform, the Law Society, which represents 100,000 solicitors in England and Wales, is scathing in its verdict.

Times Online

01 Feb

Questions asked as crooked legal eagle is freed early

A SUCCESSFUL Hampstead lawyer and television producer who became the first barrister to be jailed has been released after just two months in prison. Bruce Hyman, who has written more than 150 TV and radio shows including Unreliable Evidence with Clive Anderson, was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice. The 50-year-old, who retrained as a barrister after his high-flying career in broadcasting, was acting for Karen Sadler Young in a child custody battle when he sent a forged email with details of a bogus Court of Appeal ruling to her husband, Simon Eades. But Mr Eades traced the source of the email to an internet café on Tottenham Court Road and uncovered footage of Hyman sending it. Mr Eades, a financier from Wiltshire, is furious that Mr Hyman was released on December 20 after serving just two months. He said: "No reasons have been given as to why he has been released after just two months. It stinks.

Hampstead & Highgate Express

31 Jan

Secret bank rescues to be allowed

Chancellor Alistair Darling is to give new powers to the Bank of England to mount secret rescue operations for banks requiring emergency funds. The plan will be unveiled today as part of sweeping regulatory reforms designed to prevent a repeat of the Northern Rock debacle, the BBC has learned.
He will also make the Bank of England's loans to a troubled bank rank first in the queue of creditors.
There will be a 12 week consultation period on the new legislation. "It's unclear whether the devastating run on the Rock could have been prevented by the kind of clandestine help which the Bank may in future be able to provide," said the BBC's business editor Robert Peston.

BBC

30 Jan