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Date posted on UnjustIS

"Humiliating reverse for the FSA"

City watchdog the Financial Services Authority has suffered a humiliating reverse in its battle against "boiler rooms", the high pressure sales outfits selling risky overseas shares to investors. The FSA has been ordered to more than halve a penalty it had imposed on a Leeds firm of solicitors for its role in a number of shares sales made by unauthorised firms in Spain to UK investors. And it has been told its dealing with boiler room issues was not direct enough to drive its message home. In September 2006, the FSA fined Fox Hayes, a Leeds law firm, £150,000 for its role in "approving for marketing purposes" "financial promotions" by offshore brokers, all in Spain. The FSA said the solicitors had not "conducted business with due skill, care and diligence." It said Fox Hayes should have had reason to doubt that "the overseas companies would deal with customers in the United Kingdom in an honest and reliable way." Fox Hayes appealed to the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal. (Updated news: April 2008)

Financial Services & Markets Tribunal Features link to full decision in pdf format

31 Oct

Courts facing lawyers’ protest crisis

MERSEYSIDE’S criminal justice system is set to be thrown into chaos as solicitors prepare to defy Government reform of their pay scales. Law firms across the region are refusing to sign a new contract which will mean a fixed hourly fee for lawyers representing defendants on legal aid. That could mean a massive shortage of solicitors available to take on new criminal cases, if the dispute cannot be resolved by the New Year, legal experts warned last night.

Liverpool Daily Post

30 Oct

Legal Services Bill gets House of Lords' blessing

The Bar Council and Law Society welcomed the House of Lords' approval of the Legal Services Bill last Thursday (25 October). Law Society president Andrew Holroyd said the bill, once it receives Royal Assent later this week, will create a foundation for the future of the legal profession. "The Legal Services Bill has changed much since it was first published last December, and changed for the better," said Holroyd. "We had many doubts then, but now we can safely say it provides a workable basis for achieving Sir David Clementi's aims of modernising the regulatory structure."

The Lawyer

29 Oct

Revealed: BLG litigation head quit a year ago

Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG) commercial litigation head Clare Canning took the decision to leave the firm a year ago, but was convinced to stay, The Lawyer can reveal. Canning, who is serving her notice before moving to Mayer Brown, had to come clean to BLG last year after the firm's management got wind of her possible departure, leading to emergency talks aimed at convincing her to stay.

The Lawyer

29 Oct

Who Will Regulate the Regulators?

There can be fewer bodies as detested by industry or as despised by an infuriated British public as the Health and Safety Commission. Barely a week passes without fresh examples of intrusive absurdities by a mollycoddling nanny State: vicars forbidden to change church light bulbs in case they fall off ladders, amateur pantomimes and school trips cancelled, Christmas decorations unaffordable because of a new ban on firemen using ladders for nonemergencies, and even, appallingly, a child left to drown in a lake because the police were forbidden to jump into the water without previous training. "All too often, councils have used the legislation as a way of protecting themselves against potential lawsuits. Britain’s increasingly litigious culture, spurred by American example and sharp lawyers, has given insurers the excuse to refuse cover unless an activity can be guaranteed to be devoid of risk. Councils would rather close playground swings and ban hanging baskets than pit plain common sense against highly paid lawyers."

Times Online

29 Oct

Lawyer defending royal 'blackmailer' has track record of controversial clients

Giovanni di Stefano has helped defend clients such as Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic and Harold Shipman to earn himself the nickname "the devil's advocate". He revels in his reputation for defending the indefensible. Other clients have included notorious landlord Nicholas van Hoogstraten, convicted paedophiles Gary Glitter and Jonathan King, murderer Jeremy Bamber, road rage killer Kenneth Noye and Arkan - the Serbian warlord who made Mr di Stefano an honorary general in his militia.

Daily Mail

29 Oct

Australia: Low Doc; No Doc; Fake Doc

You may recall the Karl Suleman Enterprises (KSE) investment scam, where investors were lured into a trolley collection business on the basis of unrealistic returns. The investors have returned to court seeking relief from the loan agreements and mortgages they entered into to raise funds to invest in KSE. In the Khoshaba decision1, the Supreme Court set aside the loan agreement and mortgage on the basis that they were unfair under the Contracts Review Act, and found in favour of the investors. However, in a decision handed down last Thursday, concerning the Contracts Review Act in Riz v Perpetual Trustee Australia Limited, the Court has gone the other way and found in favour of the lender...Mr and Mrs Riz also sued the solicitors who acted for them on the loan. The Court found that the solicitors did not do enough to prevent Mr and Mrs Riz from investing part of the loan proceeds in a highly speculative venture. The damages that the Mr and Mrs Riz recovered against their solicitors included higher rate interest and lender legal enforcement costs. It was noteworthy that the solicitors advising the borrowers had "multiple allegiances" as their firm was involved in advising Mr Suleman. The firm had also acted on 95 matters where clients had invested in KSE Enterprises.

Mondaq

29 Oct

Divorce Solicitor Trap Campaign Trail

Following recent action in Bournemouth and Southampton, Bournemouth woman, Lucille Turner, sets off on Monday 29th October on a campaign to draw attention to the plight of thousands of people trapped in divorce solicitor hell. Lucille, founder of the divorce-solicitor-trap.co.uk website – a site which speaks from personal experience, offering a warning to others of the scandalous attitude of solicitors who charge their clients to break point during divorce proceedings - takes to the road for a tour of England in a minibus emblazoned with campaign posters and website details. The bus will be stopping at Brighton, London, Birmingham, Bristol and Bath, and at each stop petition signatures will be taken and leaflets about the site will be handed out. By driving across country in the bus, Lucille hopes to encourage members of the public to lend their support to the site and the petition, which is already gaining momentum on line, where the site has received significant attention.
Contact: Lucille Turner on info@divorce-solicitor-trap.co.uk
or on 0797 564 0322

Response Source

29 Oct

High-life solicitor, Thomas Byrne, goes on the run as mortgage ‘scam’ comes to light

They were the epitome of the Celtic Tiger economic boom, enjoying to the full their good fortune and wealth with money lavished on expensive cars, exclusive homes and fine dining. Now one is on the run and the other has had his assets frozen as the banks and courts go after two high-profile solicitors with debts of more than £50 million. Ireland has never seen a legal scandal like it, with one newspaper describing the fate of Michael Lynn and Thomas Byrne as “a cautionary tale about the inevitable consequences of the greed, arrogance and recklessness that fuelled the Celtic Tiger”.

Times Online

27 Oct

Solicitor fears legal aid system 'collapse'

A SOLICITOR has hit out at a system which, he says, has forced his firm to give up legally-aided family work at its Salisbury office. Tim Bishop, senior partner of Bonallack & Bishop of Salisbury, Amesbury and Andover, says he is sad he has had to make the decision and believes other firms will follow. His own firm plans to give up family legal aid work at its Amesbury and Andover offices by next summer. And he predicts the entire legal aid system could soon collapse.

Salisbury Journal

26 Oct

Brighter justice for Britain

Financial justice in Britain still moves at a snail's pace. More that six years after Independent Insurance Group went broke the three directors culpable - Michael Bright, Philip Condon and Dennis Lomas - have been convicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud. This is a victory for the long suffering Serious Fraud Office, but not for the lumbering system of City justice in Britain. In the interim, while the victims of Independent's scams have been waiting for a result from the courts, the far bigger and wider reaching Enron, Worldcom, Martha Stewart and Conrad Black cases have been investigated and tried in the US leading to sweeping regulatory reform.

This is Money

24 Oct

Watson Burton wins multi-million pound miners' victory

Leeds firm Watson Burton has scored a multi-million pound Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision for miners against Britain’s largest producer of coal UK Coal. The firm, acting for the British Association of Colliery Management (BACM), which brought the original claim with the National Union of Mineworkers, is expecting the decision could cost UK Coal £2.5m and reward employees who lost their jobs 90 days pay. UK Coal, which is one of the companies born from the Government privatising British Coal, in January 2005 announced the closure of Northumberland’s last deep mine Ellington Colliery making the 350-strong workforce redundant.

The Lawyer

24 Oct

Government finally apologises over miners' compensation delays

THE families of sick ex-miners who died before receiving compensation because of scandalous delays today finally received a government apology. Sir Brian Bender, the senior civil servant in charge of the compensation scheme, owned up to weaknesses that have forced former pitmen to wait years for their money. In evidence to a committee of MPs, Sir Brian said: "Can I begin by apologising to former miners, and their families, that many people have had to wait so long."...And confronted with evidence that 60 per cent of payouts are lower than the cost of administering those claims, Sir Brian admitted: "The lawyers have done well out of it."

Northern Echo

23 Oct

Need legal advice? Try a website that's laying down the law on costs

A new 'lawyer supermarket' offers quotes for services from conveyancing to getting a divorce. Sean Coughlan puts it to the test

The concept of the price comparison website is being applied to lawyers - casting light on that most difficult of legal questions: "How much will it cost?"
Since many people only use a lawyer infrequently, when they do have to look for legal advice it's difficult to know what constitutes a fair price and what is a rip-off. And for anyone beginning legal proceedings, there is a worry about the size of the final bill. But a new website, takelegaladvice.com, is aiming to drag prices into the open. It is offering an online quote for law firms, much in the way financial services websites do for insurance, mortgages or personal loans. It's a kind of lawyer supermarket.

Guardian

21 Oct

CROOKED LAWYER SPARED JAIL TO CARE FOR SON

A Solicitor who falsely claimed more than £4,000 in overtime and asked clients to write cheques out to his personal account has been spared jail. Judge David Price told David York that his actions were a breach of trust, but did not jail him because he helps to care for his autistic son. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years. York worked at Pyms Solicitors in Bridge Street, Belper, on civil court cases.

Derbyshire Evening Telegraph

16 Oct

Corruption is rife in British business

Britain is becoming a hotspot for corruption and bribery and the number of British companies affected by economic fraud in the past two years is almost twice the global average, according to a report released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
PwC's global economic crime survey, in which 302 UK companies were questioned, reveals corruption and bribery are the fastest-growing forms of economic crime in Britain. British businesses are also naive about assessing risk, with only 17% believing they were "quite likely" or "very likely" to be subject to economic crime in the next two years. This is despite the fact that 48% of UK corporations suffered from some form of economic crime at some point in the past two years compared with 43% globally and 38% in western Europe. (You don't say? UJ)

Guardian

16 Oct

Law firms 'facing discrimination'

An MP has called for an inquiry into why a disproportionate number of black and Asian law firms are being closed by their regulatory body. Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, has asked the justice secretary to examine the practices of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Mr Vaz believes black and Asian lawyers have "clear merit in the allegations of racism and harassment". The SRA agrees there is cause for concern but denies discrimination.

BBC

16 Oct

Divorce lawyers 'put fees before clients'

Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are the latest celebrity couple to find out the hard way that divorce often ends in a long, acrimonious and expensive court battle. But many costly annulments could be avoided if alternative and less hostile means of separation were explored first, new research suggests. Thousands of couples end a relationship in the same way as the McCartneys because their lawyers fail to advise them about cheaper, alternative solutions to tackling family breakdown, according to the government spending watchdog the National Audit Office.

Independent

16 Oct

Bill to regulate solicitors ‘risks another miners’ compensation fiasco’

Plans for a shake-up of the legal profession, to be debated by MPs today, could lead to another fiasco like the miners’ compensation scheme, because trade unions would be exempt from consumer safeguards, Conservative MPs say. The Legal Services Bill, which creates a new regulatory framework for lawyers, will not cover trade unions who give legal advice. Jonathan Djanogly, the Tory justice spokesman, said: “The Government has agreed to exempt trade unions from its own legislation designed to protect consumers from receiving poor or unscrupulous legal advice. “This will mean that trade unions’ own members cannot be assured that the legal advice they receive is up to standard...By the Law Society’s own estimate, there may be 150,000 dubious cases relating to the miners’ compensation, in which the Government spent an estimated £7.5 billion paying damages to former miners suffering from chronic respiratory disease or a crippling hand condition as a direct result of their work in the coal industry. Numerous solicitors’ firms, which took part in what has become the world’s largest personal injury compensation scheme, were accused of taking a slice of money from the sick miners’ compensation. Some trade unions became rich on the proceeds, taking payment for referring claimants.

Times Online

14 Oct

Solicitors make millions from sick miners' claims

Beresfords, a tiny firm of solicitors in Doncaster, has received £123m from the taxpayer by winning compensation claims on behalf of coal miners for work-related diseases, new government figures show. The head of the firm, Jim Beresford, had a personal salary of £16.7m in 2006 and two partners - one of whom was his daughter Esta - shared a further £3.7m between them last year...Beresfords is just one law firm that has transformed its fortunes through the government-backed compensation schemes. But the schemes have also led to many partners facing the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in what has become the biggest single-issue set of cases handled by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Other solicitors to benefit from the compensation schemes include Thompsons, which made £131m, Raleys, of Barnsley, with £77m, and Watson Burton, which received £32m.

Guardian

14 Oct

CAB expands amid fears for future

A MULTI-thousand pound expansion of Citizens Advice Bureau sessions in rural north Norfolk is underway this week - amid fears that a chronic funding gap could see the entire service fold within a few years. CAB expertise is now available in Stalham, Mundesley, Sheringham, Bacton, Buxton, Hoveton, Aldborough and Horstead, in addition to existing sessions in Cromer, and in North Walsham, where evening and weekend advice slots have been added. Expansion has been made possible by a five-year Big Lottery grant totalling almost £382,000. The cash has also paid for two extra members of staff, including a specialist adviser to deal with a major increase in debt enquiries. (Britain, whose justice system was once the envy of the world, is now interested only in making justice available to those who can pay for it. UJ)

North Norfolk News

10 Oct

False claim solicitor disciplined

A solicitor has been found guilty of professional misconduct for making fake and inflated legal aid claims. Paul Kirk, 48, from Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, made thousands of pounds by double-charging and claiming false expenses. The Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal, who looked at the case, fined Kirk the maximum of £10,000. However, because he was no longer registered as a praticising solicitor it could take no further action. The disciplinary tribunal said it lacked the power to properly discipline the lawyer. It wants legislation which would create tougher penalties for rogue solicitors.

BBC

10 Oct

Exploitation by divorce solicitors sets trap for public

Bournemouth woman takes action against divorce solicitors in an effort to put an end to the exploitation of thousands of people each year at the hands of firms of divorce solicitors, who charge what they like for services which do little more than prolong disputes and generate antagonism, resulting in mountains of unnecessary correspondence and time wasting.The structure of legal services is set to change. After a long period of review, a bill currently going through parliament will finally change the way legal firms operate. But will this be enough to prevent consumers from suffering at the hands of divorce solicitors at a time in their lives when they are most vulnerable? The Divorce Solicitor Trap thinks not. A new website is being launched which sounds alarm bells about the way divorce solicitors are still permitted to operate. An on-line petition asking the government to take stronger action is being reinforced on the streets, with hundreds signing up to prevent the fiasco of exploitation. Members of the public are being asked to enter their solicitor horror stories into the website's Name and Shame database, so that others can be warned, or to lend their support to the site by signing a petition on line. The site, http://www.divorce-solicitor-trap.co.uk goes live on October 8th and the website team will be at the West Quay shopping centre in Southampton on Thursday October 11th between 12 and 3pm, talking to people, distributing brochures and taking petitions. It's time to stop paying. Contact: Lucille Turner on turnerle@wanadoo.fr or telephone 01202 759104 or 0033665382729

Response Source

10 Oct

SRA scheme to bypass tribunal

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has launched a system that will allow investigations against solicitors to be settled without turning to the Tribunals Service.
The scheme will allow for settlements in scenarios similar to that of the conflicts investigation into Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s former corporate chief Barry O’Brien over his role in the firm’s decision to accept a conflicted instruction bidding for Marks & Spencer. In O’Brien’s case the investigation took three years, but under the new scheme the inquiry would have been significantly shorter as O’Brien was willing to apologise for his error and pay the pentalty, in that case £9,000 plus £50,000 costs.

The Lawyer

See also:

Legal Week

10 Oct

'Call centre justice' criticised

The government has been criticised for cutting the right of arrested suspects to advice from a qualified lawyer. In a little-noticed change, from next February most people who are arrested and held in custody in England and Wales for minor offences will usually be denied the right to speak to a duty lawyer. Arrested people will be put through to a call centre. Instead, they will be put through to a telephone call centre, staffed by legal advisers - who are not qualified as lawyers.

BBC

10 Oct

Solicitor in Ledward abuse case struck off

A solicitor who left clients owing thousands in costs after a group damages claim against former gynaecologist Dr Rodney Ledward collapsed was struck off today. Jane Loveday represented more than 50 women who claim they had been sexually assaulted by the consultant gynaecologist, who was barred from practicing medicine in 1998. A subsequent claim for damages brought against Dr Ledward’s former NHS trust, spearheaded by Mrs Loveday, was dropped in 2004 after legal aid was withdrawn, a solicitor’s disciplinary tribunal was told.

Times Online

10 Oct

Two solicitors in court over stolen da Vinci

Two solicitors were among four men in their fifties who appeared in court today over the theft of a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece valued at up to £25 million. Calum Jones, 52, a partner at HBJ Gateley Wareing in Glasgow, where The Madonna with the Yarnwinder was recovered by police on Thursday, and Marshall Ronald, 51, a solicitor from Greater Manchester, were charged with conspiracy to rob and extort money. They appeared at Dumfries Sheriff Court along with Robert Graham, 55, of Aughton, Ormskirk, Lancashire, and John Doyle, 58, from Halsall, Ormskirk. All four were granted bail; neither made any plea or declaration.

Times Online

09 Oct

Mortgage fraud appears again

Organised crime syndicates have been targeting residential and commercial property in increasingly sophisticated mortgage frauds using corrupt or compromised professional advisers, experts are warning. They fear that the predicted slow-down in house prices, exacerbated by the Northern Rock crisis and the credit crunch, could expose multi-million-pound frauds involving hugely overvalued and, in thousands of cases, deteriorating properties that could leave the market highly unstable. There is growing concern that there has been a systematic attack on the mortgage system by linked frauds. The Serious and Organised Crime Agency says that gangs are using corrupt or negligent solicitors, accountants and financial advisers as part of a fraud “infrastructure”, while the Serious Fraud Office has raided several offices, including law firms, as part of its investigation into an alleged multimillion-pound mortgage ring in the Midlands.

Times Online

09 Oct

Lawyers accused of causing PI delays

The study, carried out by the International Underwriting Agency and the Association of British Insurers, shows that for every £1 paid out in motor accident compensation, 43p is paid in legal fees – a 13p increase from the 30p paid in 2005.

Legal & Medical

08 Oct

Widespread dissatisfaction with Civil Procedure Rules

With the amount of electronic evidence growing rapidly in litigation cases, a survey by KPMG Forensic amongst 100 litigators in 22 leading UK-based law firms has found that there are widespread concerns about ambiguity in the e-disclosure rules, and that half of those surveyed believe judges and masters should be trained on the difficulties routinely faced in an e-disclosure exercise.

Creditman

08 Oct

Judges furious over plan to cut appeal court's powers

The government has suppressed for more than six months an overwhelmingly hostile reaction by judges and legal experts to proposals to restrict the appeal court's powers to quash convictions. Senior appeal court judges, the council of circuit judges, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and, in a personal response, its chairman, Graham Zellick, all lambasted the plans in unpublished responses, the Guardian has learned.

Guardian

06 Oct

Solicitor on porn charges walks free

A SOLICITOR who downloaded hundreds of indecent images of children from the internet has walked free from court. Brian Rangeley hunted for and stored the sickening pictures a few months before he got married. But the 49-year-old is now finished as a lawyer, has been left by his wife and turned to drink to cope with his depression.

This is Wiltshire

02 Oct

Biggest legal aid fraud repaid

The widow of a solicitor involved in Scotland's biggest legal aid fraud has agreed to pay back the cash. James Muir, who was based in Bothwell Lanarkshire, received £1.8m in legal aid payments over seven years. A repayment agreement was reached with his family and a law firm he had briefly worked for. The solicitor took his own life in 2005. Details of the repayment were included in the annual report of the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

BBC

02 Oct

Legal aid bill increases to £150m

Scotland's legal aid bill cost the public purse more than £150m last year, figures have revealed. The total bill was 2% up on the previous year and brought spending to the second highest ever level. Criminal cases accounted for nearly two thirds of the total. The cost of civil legal aid increased for the first time in three years. Donald Findlay QC topped the list for legal aid payments made to advocates, receiving £358,400 including VAT.

BBC

02 Oct

GUILTY PLEA IN BENEFIT FRAUD TRIAL

A Woman sobbed in the dock at Swansea Crown Court as she pleaded guilty to a £43,000 housing benefit fraud.Vanessa Mills committed the fraud by lying that she was liable to pay rent in relation to her home in Baywood Avenue, West Cross. Between 1999 and last year she dishonestly obtained £43,000 in housing benefit by making false representations about the address. Mills, aged 47, pleaded guilty to 10 fraud charges when she appeared yesterday before Judge Christopher Morton following an investigation by Swansea Council. She will be sentenced in a few weeks once reports have been prepared by a probation officer and a consultant psychiatrist.

Swansea Eve Post

01 Oct

Magistrate admits benefits fraud

A former lay magistrate and teacher has been ordered to complete 200 hours of community service for falsely claiming more than £40,000 in benefits. Lisa Pinkerton, 41, from Queen's Parade in Bangor, admitted three charges between January 2002 and May 2004. She was discovered to have been working as a teacher and had married while continuing to claim income support and housing benefit. (A law for them, and a law for the rest of us? Keep an eye on the item above... UJ)

BBC

01 Oct

Ninety per cent of Scottish law firms ‘plan to quit’ civil legal aid

The Scotsman has reported a recently published survey by the Law Society of Scotland which indicates that nine out of ten law firms in Scotland are so disillusioned with the civil legal aid system they are preparing to withdraw from all such cases over the next four years.

Family Law Week

30 Sep

Civil law isn’t working

The prospect for ordinary people seeking a just and legal resolution to a dispute is bleak indeed if solicitors responding to the Law Society of Scotland's questionnaire on civil legal aid cases is representative of the profession. It is in the nature of civil cases that they affect the most deeply-felt aspects of life. Divorce, custody of children, interdicts against the perpetrators of domestic violence and the pursuit of debts are the staple fare of civil law. For those involved, they are vital.

The Herald

30 Sep

Malik - law unto himself

DUBBED "A Law Unto Himself", Liaqat Malik looked every inch the professional. But as our investigation reached its conclusion in 2001, the firm in which he was a senior partner was facing 50 complaints. One of those complaints was from a Pakistani man fleeing religious persecution in his homeland who paid out £5,650 for advice he should have been told he could get for free. As a result he was forced to work round the clock to pay back the money he had borrowed from his bosses.

Asian News

See also:

Manchester Eve News

29 Sep