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Solicitors and other lawyers making the bad news from 2003 to date: News Roundup
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Solicitor jailed for helping gunman A solicitor was jailed for a year at the Old Bailey today for smuggling a letter out of Belmarsh jail to help a gunman accused of shooting a trial witness. Maya Devani, a former member of law firm Arani & Co, which defended the radical cleric Abu Hamza, was convicted earlier this year of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Her client, Timothy Merchant, was found guilty of two charges of attempted murder and perverting the course of justice and was jailed today for 18 years. Devani was told by Judge Paul Focke: "The authorities need to be able to trust and rely on the integrity of solicitors. You let them down." |
30 Sep |
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Solicitor saga highlights problems facing cash recovery unit Unrealistic financial targets for agency accused of sweeping aside civil liberties One of the government's newest anti-crime bodies has spent the past year trying to confiscate millions of pounds from a couple in Weybridge, Surrey. Neither is charged with any criminal offence, and neither has yet handed over the money. |
29 Sep |
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Executive sparks legal fees row Solicitors who work for the Scottish Executive are being paid more than three times the legal aid rate, BBC Scotland can reveal. Lawyers who have been fighting for an increase in fees said it showed there was a two-tier system of justice. The Glasgow Bar Association said ministers cannot argue legal aid costs must be controlled when public funds are being used to pay higher rates. Ministers recently increased legal aid fees by between eight and 12%. But lawyers have said that the increase had not come into effect. |
28 Sep |
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Revelations that destroyed two legal reputations THE reputations of two of the country’s most senior immigration judges were in tatters last night after details of their personal lives were revealed at the Old Bailey. Mohammed Ilyas Khan, 60, admitted in court that his stupidity had led to him becoming a “puppy” to an illegal immigrant whom he had employed as a cleaner. After the verdicts, Mr Khan said: “That’s the bloody jury for you. I am so appalled by the service the victims of crime get. First of all she got a QC to defend her and we did not. At least they found her guilty of theft.” |
28 Sep |
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Cancer charity businessman admits fraud A company director who paid himself nearly £200,000 a year to raise money for a cancer charity plead guilty to a fraud charge today. Forty year old Tony Freeman's company went into liquidation when it was caught up in a financial scandal involving the charity known as Breast Cancer Research Scotland. Many people have waited a long time to see Tony Freeman behind bars - the 40-year-old is now awaiting sentence after admitting to a charge of fraud. He took millions of pounds from a charity which was meant to be raising money from breast cancer research. The charity raised around £13 million but only 11% of that went to good causes. (The Multiple Sclerosis Society was also unaware of the credentials of some of its directors and secretaries. UJ) |
27 Sep |
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Boss jailed over £1m tax fraud A COMPANY finance boss who committed a £1 million fraud has been jailed for six months. David Paul Scott, aged 42, of Newhall Avenue, Bradley Fold, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to a charge of cheating the public revenue after it was discovered he had deliberately falsified tax documents. The court heard that Scott was employed as the financial director of Tomlander Ltd, based in Sharston, South Manchester, which has now gone into receivership. |
27 Sep |
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27 months for lawyer who robbed 'friend' of £70,000 HE was once a successful and well- connected lawyer, a city councillor and a man tipped to be a future Westminster MP. But yesterday, the political aspirations of Iain Catto were ended forever when he was jailed for 27 months for stealing £70,000 from a disabled client, who depended upon him as a close friend. Catto took the money over two years from December 2002 to maintain his lifestyle of foreign travel and exclusive restaurants after losing his job as a solicitor. He now faces a hearing before the independent Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal, where he could be struck off. |
27 Sep |
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Risk of serious disruption to legal aid services A new, independent economic analysis of the impact of the Carter proposals on criminal legal aid warns that more than 800 legal aid firms could be forced out of business – double the number predicted by Lord Carter. (The Law Society's article features links to the full LECG report in pdf format.) |
26 Sep |
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Legal aid shake-up could force 800 firms to close, report claims As many as 800 law firms – double the number originally predicted – could be forced out of business as a result of the biggest shake-up of the legal aid system in 50 years creating a shortage in the market, a new study has predicted. An independent analysis of the reforms by LECG, an economic consultancy, found that "a minimum of about 800" firms would have to merge into larger practices in order to survive once the Carter proposals are implemented. Lord Carter of Coles, who unveiled the reforms in July, predicted that around 400 firms would have to merge or disband. The reforms call for a wide-ranging overhaul to the £2.1 billion a year publicly funded legal aid system aimed at saving at least £100 million annually. The most controversial change, replacing hourly solicitors’ fees with fixed or graduated payments, is likely to force small firms that rely on criminal legal aid work out of business. |
26 Sep |
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Lawyers plan to give watchdog bite The leaders of Scotland's
10,000 lawyers could be called before the courts for contempt if they snub
the recommendations of the new independent watchdog being established to
oversee the profession. |
26 Sep |
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Associated News sues Law Soc over cover-up Associated Newspapers is suing the Law Society over its refusal to disclose details of a secret hearing at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT). A reporter in the Manchester office of the Daily Mail had requested information about the hearing, but was denied. Nick Braithwaite, group legal adviser at Associated Newspapers, said: "They concluded they haven't got an obligation to disclose. We wrote letters challenging this and they dug their heels in." Under the Solicitors Act 1974, the SDT must file hearing reports with the Law Society, which in turn has a duty to make those details public. In this case the SDT did file with the Law Society, but with the strict orders that the file remain secret in order to protect third parties associated with the case. |
25 Sep |
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Pavements trips cost taxpayers £2.3m Trips or falls on pavements have cost Cardiff council more than £2m. The authority said it has paid out £2,341,000 over the last five years, after 1,822 claims were made for compensation following trips, slips or falls on council-owned pavements. But up to one third of all claims for injuries on Cardiff's pavements were false or trivial, it has been revealed. Just 428 of the claims were settled, with 866 appeals not upheld and another 528 still open, according to information released under the Freedom of Information Act. Of the pay-out, £608,000 was paid in compensation but solicitors for claimants received £751,000, with the remainder made up of legal and medical fees and claims handling. |
21 Sep |
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Charges against ex-Law Society president dropped A former President of the Law Society, accused of creating a false identity to support a disciplinary action against his deputy Kamlesh Bahl, has had the case against him dropped. The Crown Prosecution Service decided prosecuting Robert Sayer, who was also alleged to have forged a passport, was not in the public interest after his solicitor claimed he was suffering mental health problems. (Search the Law Society's web site using Google for: Robert Sayer or Kamlesh Bahl OR search Google for Robert Sayer President Law Society or Kamlesh Bahl) |
21 Sep |
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Solicitors Regulation Authority launches referral fees inquiry The Law Society’s Regulation Board yesterday (20 September) agreed to review and overhaul the principles governing the use of referral fees by solicitors’ firms. It was agreed that the board should consider the underlying principles of the current referral fee arrangements at its November meeting, with a view to a full-scale review and consultation of the rules. The board also said that there are currently “significant breaches” of the referral fee rules. Its Compliance Committee, led by Sir Stephen Lander, is to oversee a programme of enforcement activity to improve compliance. (Local links: Hairdresser's commission; Elliott Apr 2006; |
See also: |
21 Sep |
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Law Society to name new arm ‘Solicitors Regulation Authority’ The Law Society is poised to rename its regulatory arm ‘The Solicitors Regulation Authority’, or the ‘SRA’ for short, Legal Week has learnt, as Chancery Lane gears up for the next stage of its post-Clementi split. Chancery Lane’s Regulation Board met this week to thrash out the details of the proposals, which include provisions for new marketing material, as well as a fresh logo. The new SRA emblem is likely to feature a circle of red dots. The Law Society’s 16-member Corporate Governance Board looks set to approve the plans today (21 September). The rebranding is scheduled to go live in January 2007 when a website will also be launched. (See also: Consumer Complaints Service. UJ) |
Legal Week (link broken Jan 2007) |
21 Sep |
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Law Society Tribunal Decisions (Canada) TORONTO, Sept.
19 /CNW/ - The Law Society regulates the legal profession
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19 Sep |
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The UK Press Complaints Commission today joined a chorus of international condemnation for privacy laws currently being proposed in Ireland. Under the proposed law, news organisations who publish private information about public figures could face legal action before publication. Use of surveillance footage (eg. CCTV), letters, diaries or medical records could all be covered by the law. The privacy law is being proposed at the same time as the establishment of a press council in Ireland to regulate the country’s press.. |
19 Sep |
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Press Councils hit out at Irish privacy laws Ireland's planned new privacy laws have been criticised by Press Councils across Europe which claimed the strict rules would undermine self-regulation of newspapers. In an unusual step, media groups from 20 countries joined forces in claiming the proposed legislation would deny the Press the opportunity to promote high journalistic standards. The Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe insisted that giving a Press Council statutory recognition was far from the norm. |
19 Sep |
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War against internet libel begins Irish courts It was hailed as the final frontier, but the war against internet libel has begun in earnest in the Republic's courts. For years, ethereal internet buffs have boasted cyberspace is immune from earthly jurisdictions, but foul-fingered Irish citizens hiding behind the once invincible e-shroud of anonymity could be about to come down to earth with a bang. Yesterday, High Court Judge Michael Hanna directed that American Internet Service Provider (ISP) Godaddy.com, which had been hosting the controversial rateyoursolicitor.com website, be served with notice of a groundbreaking internet libel action unfolding in the Four Courts. The case involves a Dublin-based barrister, who claims she has been grossly defamed on the site. |
15 Sep |
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Jailed ex-solicitor loses Citizens Advice Bureau job A THIEVING solicitor who was working as a Citizens Advice Bureau adviser while serving a five-year prison sentence has had his contract terminated. The CAB announcement was made the day after the Lancashire Telegraph revealed that convicted conman Philip Pressler, formerly of Higher Whittlestone Farm, Darwen, was being allowed to give advice to members of the public who knew nothing of his past. |
14 Sep |
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Crooked solicitor's jail sentence A CORRUPT solicitor has been jailed for two years after a £300,000 scam was uncovered. Mark Kerruish, 40, massively over-billed clients, some of them dead, while he was the senior partner running Fielding and Co in Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Cheadle Hulme. |
14 Sep |
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Administrative fees are £70m as asbestos fund pays out just 20p in the pound to victims Administrators and lawyers claimed a staggering £70m in fees to administer a compensation scheme which left cancer victims with just 20 per cent of the money they should have received. The deal means victims of terminal cancer in Leeds who are entitled to compensation of around £100,000 will receive only £20,000, or 20p in the pound. |
13 Sep |
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Financial adviser turned high-rolling online gambler stole £2m from clients
A financial adviser who stole over £2m from his clients to feed an online
gambling addiction was last night facing a substantial jail sentence after
pleading guilty to theft, false accounting and forgery. |
13 Sep |
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CON LAWYER OUT OF JAIL TO GIVE ADVICE A SOLICITOR who stole £750,000 from his clients was allowed out of prison to give advice at a Citizens' Advice Bureau. Philip Pressler, 53, was jailed for five years in 2004 after swindling charities and individuals seeking advice on wills. He worked at Citizens' Advice twice a week for a year and may have advised on fraud. Det Sgt Graham Norris, who led the investigation into his crimes, said: "He is a conman. It shocked me when I was told. "How would you feel if you had received advice from him and found out what he'd done?" |
13 Sep |
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Watchdog targets bad lawyers
BRITAIN'S foremost
consumer watchdog has proposed a series of measures to protect the public
from incompetent Scottish lawyers that go well beyond those contained in
Holyrood legislation. |
13 Sep |
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CC hires FSA lawyer to head regulatory enforcement Clifford Chance (CC) has hired Financial Services Authority (FSA) senior enforcement lawyer Carlos Conceicao as its new director of regulatory enforcement. Conceicao, who heads the regulator’s wholesale group in its enforcement division, is to join the magic circle firm’s 75-partner financial services regulatory enforcement team in January. He is a qualified barrister but is expected to join the firm’s partnership once he has qualified as a solicitor. |
12 Sep |
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Complaints records may be made public All law firms in England and Wales could find their complaints records made public and have to make an annual return on how they have handled complaints internally, under plans being considered by the Law Society’s Consumer Complaints Service (CCS). Although the ideas are at an early stage, Professor Shamit Saggar, chairman of the Consumer Complaints Board, said he has ‘never come across a convincing argument’ against the principle of making public the number of complaints upheld against a firm. The transparency strategy – seen as part of the change agenda of new CCS chief executive Deborah Evans – chimes with that of the Regulation Board, which plans to make public formal regulatory sanctions that fall short of referrals to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. |
11 Sep |
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Lawyers must come clean about how they account for time
Charles Dickens did not like the law. "The one great principle of English law is to make business for itself," he wrote in Bleak House. I was reflecting on this in the wake of the controversy surrounding Avalon Solicitors, the Warrington firm whose senior partner, Andrew Nulty, has been charged with professional misconduct by the Law Society over the handling of compensation claims by sick miners. |
10 Sep |
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Investors pursue jailed fraudster for £22m A FRAUDSTER being sued for allegedly stealing £4m through a tax-avoidance plan may also face legal action by investors who claim they lost £22m in a similar scheme. Danish-born Bjorn Stiedl, serving a four-and-a-half year sentence in Britain for a separate pension fraud, is already being taken to court by those who invested in a film financing scheme called Bedford Row, reported last week by Financial Mail. But that was described as 'the tip of the iceberg' last week by an investor who claimed to be one of more than 100 victims of a technology investment plan which is understood to have been organised by 45-year-old Stiedl. |
10 Sep |
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Ministers act to preserve legal complaints system from interference MINISTERS have announced a series of concessions over a shake-up of the way complaints against lawyers are handled. It comes amid fears that the independence of the legal system could be under threat. The Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates had both voiced concerns that the proposed Scottish Legal Complaints Commission will, in effect, be controlled by ministers. |
08 Sep |
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Ministers give way to warnings over legal complaints watchdog
The Scottish Executive yesterday gave way to warnings its new legal
complaints system would undermine the independence of the profession, after
facing vociferous attacks from leading lawyers. |
08 Sep |
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Holyrood to debate legal shake-up MSPs are set to debate proposals to create an independent commission to investigate complaints against the legal profession. The new body will have the power to handle complaints against advocates and solicitors and order them to pay up to £20,000 in compensation. The move is opposed by the Law Society and the Faulty of Advocates. But ministers say they want to improve public confidence in the handling of complaints against lawyers...Matters of professional misconduct would still be handled by the Law Society of Scotland, while the courts would deal with allegations of negligence or fraud. |
07 Sep |
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Lawyers condemn reform The legal profession yesterday stepped up its onslaught against Scottish Executive plans to impose a complaints system on solicitors and reform the judiciary. Some of the most respected figures in the legal establishment lined up to attack executive policy as a threat to the independence of Scots lawyers and judges. |
07 Sep |
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Former judges join call to reject legal reforms SENIOR figures from Scotland's legal profession yesterday mounted an unprecedented attack on ministerial plans to overhaul the way complaints against lawyers are handled, branding them a threat to the independence of the law and an attack on democracy itself. Former judges joined the leaders of the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates in an effort to persuade MSPs to reject some of the proposals. |
07 Sep |
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UK solicitor pimped hookers on net A former solicitor who set up an internet prostitution business has been jailed for a year at Guildford Crown Court for "prostitution offences", UK tabloid The Sun reports. |
05 Sep |
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Solicitor General says global co-operation required to tackle Economic Crime The Solicitor General, Mike O'Brien MP QC, said yesterday that enforcement agencies around the world need to cooperate in more sophisticated ways to catch criminals engaged in economic crime. Online fraud, phishing, and scamming are becoming so prevalent that it's a big issue needing international action. Speaking at the Annual Symposium on Economic Crime, at Jesus College, Cambridge, the Solicitor General said "Today, economic crime has reached unparalleled levels of sophistication with the use of new technologies and that means that those in government and enforcement agencies must cooperate in more sophisticated ways to catch the criminals." |
05 Sep |
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A court for the world to solve its business disputes It has been a long time coming but at last someone is updating the commercial court. Mr Justice Aikens talks about his plans. THE trial was condemned as the “most expensive fishing expedition in history” and the legal system nothing more than a “profitable monopoly”. Now, in the wake of that blistering attack by Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, over the BCCI action, the Lord Chief Justice is to chair a summit on how to avoid such huge and costly trials. |
05 Sep |
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Mine yield Avalon Solicitors' profit this year hit the headlines as much for how it was made as how much was made. But a Law Society investigation into its dealings will not alter the firm's growth strategy. Andrew Nulty, the senior partner of Warrington-based 'class action' boutique Avalon Solicitors, shows no signs of regretting telling The Lawyer how much money his firm makes. Actually he shows little public signs of anything currently, having been told by his lawyers to clam up. |
05 Sep |
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Customs officers crack £111m mobile VAT fraud ring A
pioneering joint operation between British and German customs officers on
the Swiss-German border has disrupted a €165m (£111m) VAT "carousel" fraud,
the Revenue & Customs said yesterday. |
01 Sep |
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Almost 1,000 criminal cases are dropped each week NEARLY 1,000 criminal cases are dropped every week by prosecutors in Scotland, according to new figures. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service yesterday revealed that 14.4 per cent of cases reported in 2005-06 were marked "no proceedings". The total was 48,929 out of 339,415, which is 22 per cent down on the level in 2004-5. |
01 Sep |
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Outrage at solicitors' 'trim-and-tell' offer A SOLICITORS' firm has been branded "unethical" by a hairdresser offered cash to refer customers who reveal marital problems while having a trim. Steve Hall, of Heaven Hair in New Canal, Salisbury, said he was shocked at being told he could receive £75 a time to "betray the trust" of his clients. But the firm has defended its referral scheme, which does not break any rules or guidelines, saying it is merely a different way of advertising its services, and that several Salisbury hairdressers have already signed up to it. Mr Hall was stunned when he received a letter from the head of family law at... |
31 Aug |
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Fixed fees move 'threatens justice' The risk of miscarriages of justice has been increased as a result of ministerial changes to lawyers' fees, according to new research commissioned by the Scottish Executive. The study has revealed that changes to the legal aid system, aimed at speeding up the courts and reducing the cost to the taxpayer, have in fact led to less-effective work and little improvement in delays. |
31 Aug |
