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Team that takes complaints in its stride

In my job, you get a lot of complaints. Fortunately, the people who write long letters to me at The Daily Telegraph - or, worse still, ring me up when I am on deadline - are not usually objecting to anything I have done myself. They are usually complaining about their solicitors.

Telegraph

31 Mar

Complaints over lawyers rise fivefold

Consumer disquiet over how Scotland's lawyers are regulated has reached an unprecedented level.
The Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman, the industry watchdog, has received 491 complaints about the way the Law Society of Scotland and Faculty of Advocates handled complaints about their members in the last 12 months.

The Herald

31 Mar

OK, the bathwater may need changing, but keep the baby (Is there a future for The Law Society)

A COSTLY and irrelevant bureaucracy or a strong voice and defender of the solicitors’ profession? This Thursday the Law Society council kicks off debate on the future of the 150-year-old body that represents nearly 100,000 solicitors in England and Wales.

Times Online

Join the Times' online debate

28 Mar

Solicitors 'in interview danger'

Police are endangering solicitors by locking them in interview rooms with suspects, the Law Society has warned. One female duty solicitor was locked in a room with a convicted rapist and another was spat at, the society said. The society has told the Health and Safety Executive it is "only a matter of time" before a solicitor is hurt.

BBC

27 Mar

Long arm of the law puts an end to name-calling on the internet

Discussions in online forums are notoriously vigorous, not to mention rude. For a long time, the question of who was liable for defamatory statements in such public arenas was an unexplored area - until a celebrated case in which a British lecturer, Laurence Godfrey, felt that he had been libelled by a contribution to an online discussion forum that had been forged in his name..."

Observer

26 Mar

Investigation launched after McKie lawyers’ computer files stolen

LAWYERS acting for former detective Shirley McKie in a multi-million-pound legal action against the Scottish Executive have had their computer hacked into and sensitive files removed. The Sunday Herald can reveal that two independent specialists have confirmed to the McKie legal team that its computer has been accessed remotely by a hacker and information contained on its hard disc “cleaned out”. Every file relating to the high-profile fingerprint case, including confidential reports and documents said to claim collusion on the part of fingerprint experts at the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) in a 1997 Kilmarnock murder case, was taken.

Sunday Herald

26 Mar

Act now to end this shambles in our courts, lawyers' leaders demand

Only urgent action can save England's "shambolic court system", lawyers' leaders warned the Government yesterday. Stephen Hockman QC, the chairman of the Bar Council, and Kevin Martin, the president of the Law Society, whose professional bodies represent all barristers and solicitors in England and Wales, backed the Sunday Telegraph's campaign for effective justice as it emerged that thousands of criminals walk free because of failings by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Sunday Telegraph

19 Mar

Biggest problem for barristers is that there's too many of them

THE Bar Council has issued a warning to would-be legal eagles: there are too many barristers in training and at least one-third of qualified lawyers struggle to find work. “There are more barristers than work available and it is a serious concern,” said Hugh Mohan, a senior counsel and chairman of the Bar Council, which represents 1,750 lawyers.

Sunday Times (Ireland)

19 Mar

Complaints against lawyers up 30%, reveals Law Society

COMPLAINTS against Scotland's lawyers soared by 30 per cent last year to nearly 5,000, The Scotsman has learned. The Law Society of Scotland's annual report, unveiled at its closed-doors annual meeting yesterday, showed that 4,849 complaints were made against solicitors last year compared with 3,732 in 2004. The level of complaints has more than doubled in five years, a trend described by politicians as "very worrying".

The Scotsman

18 Mar

Capita fined over anti-fraud failure

Investment manager Capita Financial Administrators has been fined £300,000 by the Financial Services Authority for poor anti-fraud controls after it found a group of employees stole the identities of clients to make payments worth £328,241.

Telegraph See also:

BBC

17 Mar

Berlusconi, Mills get court date

Court hearings on whether to indict Italy's prime minister and the husband of the UK's culture secretary on corruption charges begin on 5 June. Italian prosecutors claim Silvio Berlusconi paid David Mills, husband of Tessa Jowell, $600,000 (£344,000) for helpful testimony in two court cases.

BBC

17 Mar

Split trust investors' class action refused

A senior court official has rebuffed efforts by Class Law, the legal firm, to get group action status for its claim on behalf of investors who lost money by investing in split capital investment trusts.

Financial Times

17 Mar

Concern over legal reform costs

A plan to overhaul the way complaints about solicitors are dealt with is expected to be attacked by the president of Scotland's Law Society. Caroline Flanagan will use the body's annual meeting to outline concerns about the cost of the changes. Complaints are currently dealt with by the law society but an independent commission has been proposed.

BBC See also:

The Herald

17 Mar

Solicitor struck off

A solicitor who stole money from the dead and disabled has been kicked out of the legal profession. Nicholas Pounder, 47, plundered the estates of dead clients to pay off a car loan and went on a luxury holiday to Spain on money belonging to a disabled man. The solicitors' disciplinary tribunal in London heard how Pounder, a former partner in David and Snape, Wyndham Street, Bridgend, stole more than £168,000 over six years, creating bogus letters to cover his tracks.

IC Wales

16 Mar

Norfolk solicitor suspended

A Norfolk solicitor who agreed to falsify a lie detector test in order to help a client blow the lid on a steamy love affair was yesterday suspended for two years. Trevor Beckford, 53, of Hall Road, Thurton, near Loddon, was found guilty at a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in London of involvement in the bizarre scheme to expose a love cheat, and was warned that any further misconduct would result in him being struck off. (Solicitors also fail lie detector tests. UJ)

Eastern Daily Press

15 Mar

Law Society takes fight against accountants to House of Lords

The Law Society is paying a visit to the House of Lords this week in an ongoing fight against an accountancy firm accused of negligence. On Thursday (16 March) Lords Hoffmann, Rodger, Scott, Walker and Baroness Hale will hear the appeal of accountants Sephton & Co on preliminary issues in the case. The Law Society, represented by regular advisers Wright Son & Pepper and Fountain Court Chambers' Timothy Dutton QC, is claiming negligence and fraud against Sephtons. The firm provided annual reports between 1989 and 1995 on solicitors' firm Payne & Co. In 1997 Paynes' name partner Andrew Payne was struck off the roll and in 1998 was sentenced to five years in prison for theft, forgery and procuring a valuable security by deception after it emerged that he had been misappropriating clients' funds. In total, Payne misappropriated more than £750,000 from clients' accounts.

The Lawyer

14 Mar

Drug dealer lawyer defends assets

Court action to seize the assets of a lawyer who smuggled heroin and valium into Barlinnie jail has started. The Crown claim Angela Baillie made £52,556 from drug dealing and have moved to strip her of her assets.

BBC

13 Mar

Readers lose thousands to ‘boiler rooms’

Firms are targeting wealthy investors by selling them shares that soon turn out to be worthless. By Jessica Bown
THE Sunday Times Money desk has been inundated with letters from readers who have lost up to £100,000 after investing through boiler rooms — so-called because of their hard-sell tactics and high-pressure sales targets.

Times Online

13 Mar

Wigs may go in law courts' great divide

THE traditional wigs and gowns worn by judges and advocates for 300 years could be scrapped for civil and commercial trials under a review by the Lord Chief Justice.

Times Online

13 Mar

Government 'accountant' gets four years

Robert Adewunmi, 32 of Gilmour Close in Berkshire, has been jailed for four years for stealing nearly £1m from the deputy prime minister's office.

Accountancy Age

13 Mar

UK fraud 'surges to £1bn level'

Reported fraud in the UK has risen 30% to almost £1bn - driven by surging worker fraud, a report has found. The value of employee fraud rose almost 80% in 2005 from a year earlier - and more than 200% since 2003, BDO Stoy Hayward's Fraudtrack survey said.

BBC

13 Mar

Police investigate £359k fraud within council

A SERIOUS fraud worth £359,000 within Richmond upon Thames Council is being investigated by police. The fraud, which is believed to have been carried out by one person, thought to be a member of staff, was uncovered by the council's internal auditors. They are now working with police in a bid to bring charges.

Richmond & Twickenham Times

12 Mar

Peers force delay to plan for fraud trials without juries

Ministers have been forced to postpone plans to end jury trials in the most serious fraud cases until at least the next parliament amid a fierce row with opposition peers who were threatening to defeat the government.

Financial Times

12 Mar

Law sparks accountant safety fears

SCOTTISH accountants are demanding protection from clients whose questionable activities they must report under strict new money laundering and fraud laws..."Accountants north of the Border are making the submission to the Home Office, along with their English counterparts, in the wake of a series of threats to accountants and an attack on the Scottish Law Society's chief accountant, Leslie Cumming. The attack on Cumming is widely believed to have been connected to his investigations of crooked dealings among lawyers."

Scotland on Sunday

12 Mar

Auctionworld bosses must pay out £30,000

TWO directors of the scandalrocked Waltham Cross-based TV shopping channel Auctionworld were this week fined and ordered to pay costs totalling £30,000 after a court heard they allowed jewellery to be sold off with inflated guide prices. Millionaire George Spitaliotis, 37, of The Maples, Goffs Oak, managing director of Auctionworld, which occupied Unit 7 at the IO Centre in Lea Road, and solicitor Nigel Rowley, 42, from Caterham, Surrey, were both disqualified from being company directors for the next 18 months.

Herts & Essex News

11 Mar

‘False hope’ alert over mortgages

Thousands of Scots who were mis-sold endowment mortgages by solicitors were warned yesterday not to hold out "false hope" of securing compensation.

The Herald

08 Mar

15% bonus scheme for CPS lawyers

Top Crown Prosecution Service lawyers could be in line for bonuses of up to 15% as part of a new initiative linking their pay to achieving efficiencies. The 42 chief crown prosecutors in England and Wales could see salary rises of as much as £13,500 a year. The scheme, which is not connected to conviction rates, aims to ensure the CPS keeps to budgets and reduces the number of cancelled court hearings.

BBC

07 Mar

Insider fraud is rising problem for banks

LONDON (Reuters) - Bank staff pressured by criminal gangs to commit large-scale fraud against customers pose a rising problem for banks and building societies, the industry said on Friday. Two and a half years ago, comedian Harry Hill had 279,000 pounds stolen from his Halifax bank account by a bank employee who said she and her family had been threatened if she did not cooperate with the criminal who approached her. Now a number of Britain's leading banks and building societies say this type of crime is on the increase.

Reuters

06 Mar

Fraud in UK 'pushes towards £1bn'

The value of reported fraud in the UK surged to almost £1bn in 2005, a report from accountants BDO Stoy Hayward says. Fraud rose 30% during the year and has nearly tripled since 2003, according to the firm's annual Fraudtrack report. Pure greed was the main motivation in two-thirds of fraud, followed by the need to gamble and meet debts, it said.

BBC

06 Mar

Legal complaints shake-up mooted

Lawyers in Scotland could be forced to pay up to £20,000 in compensation if they mishandle work for a client. The proposal is one of a number contained in the Legal Services Bill, which is due to be introduced at Holyrood on Thursday. The bill would also create an independent body to investigate complaints against lawyers.

BBC

02 Mar

Phoenix firms spark fly-by-night fears

More than one in four businesses have fallen foul of a phoenix company, according to a poll by the Better Payment Practice Group.

Telegraph

01 Mar

Why dirty money should never be laundered

THE Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has published advice for small businesses and consumers on how to prevent money laundering. Felicity Banks, head of business law at the institute, said, "Back in 1963, one of the biggest problems for the Great Train Robbers was what to do with the stolen cash. "In 2006, criminals will find it even harder, given the greater awareness of what money laundering is, why it is a criminal act in its own right, and the need for vigilance in preventing it.

IC Wales

01 Mar

MPs warn on compensation move

Legislation designed to tackle Britain's 'compensation culture' could have the effect of increasing the number of court claims, a Commons committee has warned. A report from the constitutional affairs committee cautioned that the first clause of the Compensations Bill could generate perverse effects because of a vaguely worded clause. The legislation is designed to protect people who undertake desirable or useful activities from being sued.

ePolitix

01 Mar

UK not suffering a "compensation culture" - MPs

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is not in the grip of a "compensation culture," despite the public perception of a boom in personal injury claims, MPs said on Wednesday, labelling plans to introduce liability protection unnecessary. The all-party Constitutional Affairs Committee found the number of personal claims has not increased in recent years, although inappropriate legislation and misleading media coverage, can lead to an exaggerated fear of being sued. "There is a real problem with excessive risk aversion in Britain today, but it is not caused by personal injury litigation or the 'no-win-no-fee' system," committee chairman Alan Beith said.

Reuters

01 Mar

Former solicitor jailed for theft

A former Anglesey solicitor who stole £143,000 from clients has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Stephen Puleston Williams, 50, from Holyhead, stole the money from clients over a three-year period. He admitted theft and forgery at Chester Crown Court before being sentenced on Tuesday.

BBC

28 Feb

OFT ticks off Law Soc over price disclosures

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has fired a warning shot to the Law Society and its members after it found the Surrey Law Society guilty of anticompetitive pricing practices. Graham Horgan, OFT professional services division head, said that circulating pricing information among solicitors was an anticompetitive practice. "From our perspective, we would consider this behaviour most likely to result in an increase in prices by solicitors," he said. "In a worst-case scenario, solicitors could set their prices in a collusive way with the knowledge of what other local litigators are charging."

The Lawyer

28 Feb