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The Inadequacy of The Law Society in Handling a Complaint by a Bexley Family Against A Local Solicitor whose actions lead to a loss of thousand of pounds - Debate in the House of Commons lead by Nigel Beard MP

Press Release

Hansard. (Law Society Complaints)

29 Mar

Chancellor seals fate of fraud unit

The secretive CIB, with some famous scalps to its name, is on the move.

The Department of Trade and Industry's company investigation branch (CIB), which, in its heyday, oversaw inquiries into Britain's biggest corporate scandals including House of Fraser, Guinness and Mirror Group Newspapers, is to be swallowed up by the Insolvency Service.

Guardian

29 Mar

Science baffles juries, say MPs

Trials without juries should be considered in criminal cases based on complex scientific evidence, a committee of MPs argues today.

Guardian

29 Mar

UK fraud crime soars to A£756m

The total value of reported fraud in Britain has more than doubled in a year to almost A£800 million, a report said. Figures released by accountants and business advisers BDO Stoy Hayward showed it increased from A£331 million in 2003 to A£756 million in 2004. "You just have to look at the plundering of the Maxwell pension fund to see the human cost of this crime. I have seen fraud destroy businesses and jobs, rob people of their livelihoods, and often leave victims with severe depression. It is certainly not the victimless crime so often portrayed."

IC Uxbridge

BBC

28 Mar

Lawyer stars in new fly-on-the-wall TV production

A NEW fly on the wall television documentary about personal injury claims will make compulsive viewing as a Wilmslow lawyer comes under the spotlight. Andrew Twambley, 40, is a major star in No Win No Fee, a five-part series to be screened by BBC2 on May 4. Cameras were rolling in his solicitor’s 24 hours a day for six months in order to give an insight into the personal injury industry.

Wilmslow Express

27 Mar

Jailed Solicitor 'Betrayed Grieving Clients'

Police who investigated a solicitor jailed for six years after stealing more than £1 million from the estates of dead clients today described his crimes as a “betrayal of trust of staggering proportions”.
John Ingham, 60, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court yesterday after admitting 19 counts of theft from accounts held by his firm in Otley, West Yorkshire.

The Scotsman

24 Mar

Law firm must pay back £3,525 to sick miner

A LEADING Liverpool law firm was branded "sickening and cruel" by an MP after being forced to pay back £3,525 it wrongly deducted from a sick miner's compensation award. The Law Society ruled there was a "serious failure" in the service provided by Silverbeck Rymer to a former pitman from County Durham, who suffers from lung damage.

Liverpool Echo

24 Mar

Reform, fraud and legal aid

Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, announced this week that he was setting up a judicial communications office. From next month, two experienced press officers will "provide the public with a sound understanding of how judges operate".

Telegraph

24 Mar

Solicitor is cleared of touting for clients

AAMER Anwar, one of Scotland's best-known lawyers, has been cleared following a probe into allegations that he touted for clients.

The Herald

24 Mar

Investor Wins Equitable Life Test Case

Equitable Life was today ordered to pay compensation to a female investor in a test case which could leave the mutual liable for similar payments to more than 1,000 customers. The Chief Financial Ombudsman upheld the claim for compensation by the unnamed woman referred to as Ms E.

The Scotsman

23 Mar

Will mystery after lawyer disappears

A GRANDMOTHER got the fright of her life when she went to change her will, because her solicitor had disappeared. She is now worried that loans may have been taken out on her home or that it could even have been sold.

Herts24

23 Mar

NAB Currency Options Trader pleads guilty

National Australia Bank’s currency crisis continues with former NAB head of foreign currency options desk, Luke Duffy pleading guilty to three counts of dishonestly using his position as an employee to gain advantage for himself and others. Duffy was granted bail and his sentence will be handed down in Melbourne’s County court on 14th June 2005. Former foreign currency traders, Gianni Gray, Vincent Ficarra and David Bullen also appeared yesterday in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

The Financial Standard (AUS)

23 Mar

'End of the Line for Complex Jury Trials'

The Attorney General’s “considerable disquiet” over the collapse of the Jubilee Line fraud trial has been echoed by other lawyers. Many believe that today’s decision to stop the trial after 21 months at an estimated £60 million cost will lead to renewed pressure to end trial by jury in similar long and complex cases.

The Scotsman

23 Mar

Clampdown on claims firms

Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, yesterday promised legislation to regulate ambulance-chasing claims management companies which tout for accident cases. The companies have been criticised for encouraging spurious compensation claims and for their hard-sell tactics.

Guardian

23 Mar

Sacked Judge Gets Three Year Law Ban

A former district judge who was sacked for being drunk was today banned from practising law for three years over serious financial irregularities and ordered to pay £15,000 costs. David Messenger, 50, of Scalby Road, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, used a client’s money taken from his law firm Messengers for his own personal benefit.

The Scotsman

22 Mar

Watchdogs call for regulation shake up of legal profession

As three top consumer watchdogs join forces to lobby for the government to introduce tougher regulation for lawyers, a survey shows three in ten people feel they are getting poor value for money from their solicitor.

Which?

21 Mar

Divorce lawyer is carpeted over fees

Temporarily removed - broken link

Evening Standard

21 Mar

Jonathan King to be released early

Disgraced pop impresario Jonathan King is to be released on parole having served less than half of his sentence for sexually abusing boys. The 60-year-old was due to be released on Tuesday March 29 but will leave prison earlier than expected after the Parole Board agreed to take into account time spent in police interview, his lawyer Giovanni di Stefano said.

ITV

21 Mar

Legal Reform Bill Clears Final Hurdle

By Amanda Brown and Andrew Evans, PA Lords Staff
The Government’s controversial Bill reforming the legal system passed its final hurdle in the Lords today. A last ditch bid by the Opposition to restrict the Government’s plans to alter the role of the Lord Chancellor failed and the Constitutional Reform Bill now awaits Royal Assent.

Peers voted by 191 to 203, majority 12, to allow an MP in future to take on the centuries-old role.

The Scotsman

21 Mar

Lord Chancellor's speech at the Legal Services Reform Conference.

"Mistakes do happen. The informed consumer understands this - but they expect problems to be rectified and complaints dealt with seriously and quickly. Good complaints handling is vital to building confidence in the sector."

"So, confidence and choice - this is where we need to head towards, that’s our vision for the way legal services are delivered. And, by any measure, we are currently falling short. You can see it in the number of complaints - one complaint for every six solicitors."

Speech

21 Mar

Bar Council's disciplinary procedure is judged to breach human rights laws

The bar's system for disciplining errant barristers is in disarray after a high court judge's ruling that it breaches human rights laws, which could entitle dozens of disbarred, suspended and reprimanded barristers to reopen their cases. The situation is a huge embarrassment to the Bar Council because the ruling means its disciplinary process has for years breached rules of human rights and natural justice which require cases to be heard by an independent and impartial tribunal.

Guardian

21 Mar

Lawyers wait for verdict on how they judge themselves

Solicitors' inability to handle complaints means change for barristers as well. BARRISTERS and solicitors may soon cease to belong to self-regulating professions and are facing a shake-up of the ownership of legal practices.

The Times

21 Mar

Costly failure to comply with data protection act

PROFESSIONAL firms on both sides of the border have been put on notice that they could face hefty penalties for failing to comply with data protection legislation.

The Herald

21 Mar

Legal watchdog charts four-fold rise in complaints

PUBLIC disquiet over how Scotland's solicitors are regulated has quadrupled since 2001, figures suggest. The Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman has received 433 complaints about the way governing bodies, the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates, handled complaints about their members in the past 12 months

The Herald

21 Mar

Are you missing out on legal aid?

Most home insurance policies could offer invaluable help in a dispute, says Helen Pridham
DESPITE the perception that the UK is becoming an increasingly litigious society, most people do not rush to their solicitor every time the unexpected occurs. Legal advice is still seen as expensive and unobtainable. But how many people know that their household insurance policy contains a clause to cover their legal expenses?

The Times

19 Mar

Guilty legal clerk back at work

A solicitors' clerk convicted for his part in a massive legal fraud has returned to work in Bristol - doing the same job as before he was banned. Lawyers and the police say they are angry at the Law Society's decision to allow Damon Whitlow to practice.

Litigators celebrate laundering exemption

The profession is celebrating after the Court of Appeal last week ruled lawyers are exempt from Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) requirements to report suspected money laundering revealed in litigation.

Legal Week

18 Mar

Incompetent auditors face jail under DTI plans

Britain's auditors could face prison for being incompetent as well as criminal under government proposals outlined yesterday. But they will be allowed to strike deals with clients capping their liabilities for their mistakes, under Department of Trade and Industry plans.

Guardian

18 Mar

Fake Lawyer Sentenced to 12 Years
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A convicted felon who posed as a lawyer and represented hundreds of clients has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. Harold David Goldstein told the federal judge at his sentencing hearing Wednesday that he made sincere efforts to represent his clients despite his lack of a law license.

Guardian

18 Mar

Crime-Crusader Lawyer Jailed for Swindling Bosses

A greedy barrister hired to root out corruption in the travel industry was jailed for four-and-a-half years today after swindling his bosses out of nearly £1 million. Ricardo Nardi, 36, was nicknamed “Mr Clean” after being taken on as legal services chief at the Association of British Travel Agents.

The Scotsman

16 Mar

New Clash Looms Between MPs and Peers

The prospect of a fresh parliamentary showdown loomed tonight after MPs rejected a bid by peers to alter plans for a radical shake-up of the legal system. Almost a week on from the historic all-night tussle over terror laws, the two Houses found themselves on collision course once again. This time a row over moves to allow non-peers and non-lawyers to be Lord Chancellor threatens progress of the Constitutional Reform Bill.

The Scotsman

16 Mar

Lawyer Facing Sentence for Defrauding Employers

A barrister employed to unearth corruption in the travel industry is due to be sentenced today for defrauding the organisation that hired him out of nearly £1 million. Ricardo Nardi, 36, who was head of legal services at the Association of British Travel Agents, paid the money into a series of bank accounts during a seven-year betrayal of trust.

The Scotsman

16 Mar

Peers defeat judicial reform plan

Peers have inflicted a double defeat on the government over its plans to shake-up the judicial system.
The Lords voted 215 to 199 to insist that the lord chancellor must be a member of the Upper House, in a debate on the Constitutional Reform Bill.

BBC

15 Mar

Lawyer spent clients’ funds

A SOLICITOR who used his clients’ money to buy a holiday home and pay staff wages, has been barred from practising on his own for 10 years. Daniel Hurley, a solicitor who owns a law firm in Galway city, was censured by the High Court after an investigation into his accounts by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, an independent body that deals with complaints against lawyers.

Sunday Times - Ireland

13 Mar

Police warn City firms not to sweep fraud under carpet

Investment banks, insurance companies and other City firms are failing to report employees who commit fraud to the police, thus allowing sacked fraudsters to find work at other firms, according to the City of London Police.

Telegraph

13 Mar

Solicitor David Andrew Gatherer struck off.

The SDT ordered that the respondent, of 22 Meadow Lane, East Herrington, Sunderland SR3 3RG, who at all material times had been in practice on his own account, should be struck off the Roll for unbefitting conduct in that, on 23 September 2003, he had been tried and convicted on indictment of conspiracy to defraud at Newcastle Crown Court, and on 16 January 2004 had been sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. The SDT found that the conviction of a solicitor for a criminal offence involving dishonesty flew in the face of the fundamental requirement that a member of the profession be a person of the highest integrity, probity and trustworthiness. (He could always use the "Daultrey Clause". UJ).

Law Society Gazette

11 Mar

Solicitor admits theft of £900,000 from clients

John Richard Ingham was struck off by the Law Society last month after the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal heard he had plundered money from accounts for years. Yesterday Ingham, 60, who was a partner in the firm of Barret Chamberlain, in Manor Square, Otley, appeared at Leeds Crown Court and pleaded guilty to 19 charges of theft totalling more than £980,000 from the beneficiaries of different clients prior to June 2003.

Yorkshire Post

09 Mar

Crooked solicitor is shamed

A CROOKED solicitor who milked £43,000 from his firm when his bosses failed to give him a promised pay rise was struck off on Tuesday.Panikkos Panayi, 39, vowed to "get even" with his partners at Heckford Norton in Letchworth GC when they decided against the increase.

Herts 24

03 Mar

New jobs at the Law Society

"Following the recommendations of a Governance Review Group, the Law Society’s Council has decided to create a much greater separation between the Law Society’s regulatory and representative roles, and to appoint two new bodies to carry out the regulatory functions. The Law Society wishes to appoint to the Regulation Board, a Chair (who must be a solicitor) and 15 members with a mixture of solicitor and lay backgrounds (with solicitor members comprising the majority). To the Consumer Complaints Board, a Chair (who must not be a lawyer) and 12 members with a mix of solicitor and non-lawyer backgrounds (with non-lawyer members comprising the majority). It will be important for membership of the Boards to reflect the diversity of the solicitors’ profession and the society it exists to serve. Request the application pack for further information and the application form which needs to be completed by all candidates."

KMC International

01 Mar