Monday, September 12, 2011

Naming crooks is criminal ? Law Society of England & Wales Chief Des Hudson to face legal action from Solicitors From Hell owner over "criminal" jibe

SFH vLaw Society of England & Wales Chief Des Hudson is accused of branding owner of critical website “a criminal” for naming crooked lawyers. THE LIMITS of what the UK’s ‘control freak’ legal profession will stand or even allow in terms of public criticism have taken a new twist after information emerged on a Law Professor’s blog detailing a conversation in which Des Hudson the £400K-A-YEAR Chief Executive of the Law Society of England & Wales is alleged to have branded Mr Rick Kordowski “A CRIMINAL” for his SOLICITORS FROM HELL website’s consumer reviews of poor solicitors & criticisms of solicitors. In response, Mr Korwowski, the owner of the increasingly well known UK based website which names & shames crooked lawyers from all across the UK, has announced he is to sue Des Hudson for defamation, seeking “substantial damages”.

The incident came to light after the Law Society Chief Executive took part in a joint interview with well known Law Professor John Flood of the University of Westminster on BBC Radio FOUR’s consumer programme You and Yourswhich discussed the Solicitors From Hell website and its policy of naming & shaming lawyers who fail their clients by allowing consumers to write their own reviews of how they were treated by their solicitors. The interview with Des Hudson & John Flood can be heard in full HERE.

After the interview had taken place, Professor Flood wrote on his web blog in an article dated 22 July 2011 : “As I came out of the BBC yesterday with Des Hudson, the chief executive of the Law Society, he said Rick Kordowski was a criminal. I reminded Des that the police didn't think so. He wasn't happy.”

The battle by Mr Kordowski to keep the Solicitors From Hell website inline in the face of a coordinated campaign by the legal profession in England & Wales who appear to be out to personally ruin him for his website’s publication of criticisms the legal profession and allowing consumers to write their own views of their poor experiences in the legal world, can be read in more detail on the Solicitors From Hell website HERE and in yesterday’s Independent on Sunday newspaper HERE

Rick Kordowski, writing on his website revealed the Law Society have also demanded he surrender the domain name “Solicitors From Hell”. He wrote : “During negotiations, I offered to re-engineer my website to The Law Society’s specifications and parameters at my expense. The Law Society rejected this offer and further added: "A pre-requisite will be that the site in its current form – with all its content/postings – is taken down forthwith. You will also need to surrender the domain name [......] If not then there is no point pursuing discussions further and the matter is best left for the High Court. And then sent me a letter of claim insisting that I shut down this site and promise not to do it again. "

Mr Kordowski added : “Tyranny at work, springs to mind! Why should The Law Society stifle public criticism of allegedly shoddy lawyers? Are the public too stupid even to have the right to criticise, as The Law Society seem to be suggesting?”

john-floodProfessor John Flood, Professor of Law an Sociology at the University of Westminster. Speaking to Diary of Injustice today, Professor Flood commented on the Law Society of England & Wales battle against Solicitors From Hell. He said : “What I can say is that the Law Society should be thinking about the clients who feel so aggrieved that they are compelled to write to SfH. That to pursue Rick Kordowski is to shoot the messenger rather than deal with the substantive issues in the complaints.”

He continued : “Lawyers must realise there is a new culture present, one that is less adversarial, one that is focussed on resolution, as the Legal Ombudsman is trying to show. I'm not sure the Law Society has fully grasped this.”

Last week, I reported the legal profession’s battle against Rick Kordowski & Solicitors From Hell, here : English, Scots Law Societies ‘team up’ in legal moves against “Solicitors from Hell” in bid to stop Legal Ombudsman ‘Naming & Shaming’ crooked lawyers after an investigation in Scotland turned up discussions at the Law Society of Scotland who were keen to support moves to kill off Solicitors From Hell in a joint attempt with the Law Society of England & Wales to ‘scare off’ the Legal Ombudsman’s intentions to identify poorly performing solicitors & law firms in published complaints decisions & investigations.

Crucially, consumer group Which? & the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) both said the court action against Solicitors From Hell would probably not be going ahead if the Legal Ombudsman had already begun naming & shaming law firms who fail their clients. The Legal Ombudsman has held a consultation on naming & shaming solicitors & law firms but has yet to make a decision on going ahead with the policy, which is supported by consumer groups, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) & the UK Government which I reported on in an earlier, article, HERE.

Which logoConsumer group Which? gave their comments on the LeO’s plans to identify crooked lawyers in England & Wales. A spokesperson for Which? said : “Which? strongly supports the principle of the LeO publishing complaints data under a strict and published policy , including in some circumstances the name of the law firm concerned. We set out our position in our response to the LeO consultation (page 51: opening up regulatory data)) pointing out that it is the expectation of Government that complaints handling bodies are as transparent as possible.”

Asked for their comment on allegations the legal action against Solicitors from Hell was part of a plan by the Law Society of England & Wales to prevent the Legal Ombudsman from naming & shaming ‘crooked lawyers’, the Which? spokesperson said : “The action being taken against Solicitors from Hell by the Law Society is partly due, in our view, to the fact that LeO does not yet publish complaints data. We consider it far more sensible that complaints data is published under a clear policy framework by an ombudsman scheme. Given this, we would find it regretful if any legal action were to be brought against the LeO by the legal profession in England & Wales if "naming & shaming" is to be adopted by the LeO as a future policy.”

Legal Services Consumer PanelSpeaking on the LeO’s plans to publish complaints data & the identities of law firms who perform poorly for clients, Elisabeth Davies, Chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP), said : “Research shows that UK consumers are now leaving well over 100 million comments online every year about their experience with businesses across the economy. Lawyers cannot escape this welcome emergence of consumer power, but instead should seek and then use such feedback to improve the service they offer.

She continued : “The courts will decide the fate of the Solicitors From Hell website. However, such websites fill a vacuum that exists because official complaints data about lawyers is not publically available to help consumers identify good quality lawyers. The Panel will continue to push the Legal Ombudsman to name those law firms who regularly provide poor service.”

CRIMINALISING CRITICS : Law Society of Scotland official told journalist : “Anyone who criticises the legal profession must be a criminal and should be treated like a criminal”.

The sentiments apparently expressed by Mr Hudson who attempts to criminalise Mr Kordowski and critics of the legal profession are startlingly similar to opinions expressed in Scotland by the most senior officials at the Law Society of Scotland, individual solicitors, law firms and the Legal Defence Union, who have all attempted to close down critical websites naming & shaming crooked lawyers who are still working and whose clients are unaware of their poor records as solicitors.

In one of several examples of over-the-top attacks on critics of the legal profession, notes taken by a journalist working for a Scottish newspaper revealed a senior Law Society of Scotland figure made a variety of bitter, hate-fuelled remarks against critics, in one, expressing : “Anyone who criticises the legal profession must be a criminal and should be treated like a criminal”.

Leslie CummingLeslie Cumming, former Law Society Chief Accountant – His assault was used by Law Society of Scotland officials in attempts to censor, imprison critics of legal profession in Scotland. In another example, involving the attack on former Law Society Chief Accountant Leslie Cumming, senior Law Society figures including Douglas Mill blamed websites including “Diary of Injustice” (which was only two weeks old at the time) for the attack on Mr Cumming, with Scotland on Sunday reporting in an article dated 29 January 2006 : “Senior figures in the Law Society have made it known they feel some of the websites criticising lawyers are tantamount to incitement to violence.”

An insider who had knowledge of the Scotland on Sunday story and how it was developing confessed the direct comments from Law Society officials “were too strong to put into the final version which appeared in the newspaper”. A journalist who was privately briefed by senior Law Society officials including former Chief Executive Douglas Mill who was forced to resign after a well known episode at the Scottish Parliament, described some comments from Law Society officials which are confirmed in notes, as “highly defamatory”. He went onto say “I felt I was being set up to write a piece implicating critics of lawyers in the attack.”

Further reports in the media linked the attack on Leslie Cumming to crooked lawyers within the Law Society itself who feared Mr Cumming’s department ‘were onto them’, however the hunt for the attacker was scaled down after several years had passed without an arrest.

Later, journalists working on the case discovered spurious statements were provided to Lothian & Borders Police by Law Society officials who were eager to blame outspoken critics of the legal profession in Scotland. The rumour was the Law Society of Scotland wanted the Police to silence those who exposed ‘crooked lawyers’. Evidence of these comments & statements have recently been provided to those who were targeted by the Law Society in this way, and journalists looking further into the case have reported a relative of Mr Cumming was a serving officer in Lothian & Borders Police.

Several Scottish newspapers reported earlier this year an individual has since been arrested for the attack on Mr Cumming however no further reporting on the case can be made at this time due to contempt of court laws. The accused is due to face a trial in October 2011.

Given I know what kind of pressure, tricks, threats, and indeed connections the legal profession will be using against “Solicitors From Hell”, may I extend my best wishes and support to Rick Kordowski for his exemplary effort in bringing the issue & discussion of criticism of the legal profession into the mainstream media and for the continued existence of “Solicitors From Hell” and the consumers right to exactly document for themselves their experiences, whether good or bad, at the hands of the legal profession throughout the entire UK.

At least in England & Wales, the debate is live, while here in Scotland, there are no moves to name & shame crooked lawyers where all discussion of it appears to be censored by the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr Hudson needs to get a life.This is 2011 not 1811.
My daughter wrote on a review site about the rubbish laptop she bought from a certain online retailer,posted them the review and in return they gave her a top of the range Samsung and an apology.
If only solicitors did the same when faced with the evidence of their wrongdoing I'm sure public perception would change.Mr Hudson's name calling will do the reverse.

Anonymous said...

As I said last week,we now appear to have "Law Societies from Hell" as well as their members.

Anonymous said...

£400K for a Chief Exec of what is little more than a lobby group for lawyers is a bit steep considering most lawyers these days are moaning about lack of business etc

Also where do lawyers get off calling their critics criminals?

We all know who the real criminals are!

Anonymous said...

Wow!
Scotland on Sunday sure turned against you!
They said all that and didnt have a quote in from a named LSoS official to back up those accusations about websites causing the attack?
I think someone is out to get you mate!

Anonymous said...

Here we see the truth of how the legal profession view clients whether they complain or not.

Would anyone of you wish to deal with a so-called 'professional' who at the drop of a hat will brand YOU a criminal?

Save your lives save your sanity and save your wealth by staying the hell out of law firms offices and well away from solicitors.If you dont use them they cant rip you off!

Anonymous said...

Quite right Hudson should be taken to court!

Anonymous said...

Mr Kordowski added : “Tyranny at work, springs to mind! Why should The Law Society stifle public criticism of allegedly shoddy lawyers? Are the public too stupid even to have the right to criticise, as The Law Society seem to be suggesting?”

The Law Society power complex must be brought to an end because they clearly seem to believe their dictatorship must be obeyed by the public.Not a chance here Mr Hudson.

Anonymous said...

Parents are allowed to find out if paedophiles are parked near a school so we should all be able to find out which lawyers are crooked (I'm guessing there are so many there wont be any names left for the honest list!)

Anonymous said...

I think Lothian & Borders will be having kittens at what you say about these Law Society statements [presumably] about you and anyone else with a beef against a lawyer.

We should have all this out in the open before someone goes round ordering the cops to destroy their notes & so on.

Anonymous said...

So the Law Society tried to get some bent cops to have a go at you and when that failed they ran to a friendly rag.This reinforces my belief we are dealing with a truly evil group of people who also claim to represent the public interest.Is it the public interest to lock everyone up who decides to tell the world life is not really very honest in the legal system?
YOU DECIDE!

Anonymous said...

All the dirty tricks come out to play when lawyers are the target of events brought about by their own corruption.JAIL THEM ALL

Anonymous said...

The Legal Ombudsman should pull his finger out and start naming these crooks instead of wait wait wait!

Anonymous said...

“Senior figures in the Law Society have made it known they feel some of the websites criticising lawyers are tantamount to incitement to violence.”

Staggering this was allowed in a newspaper without someone backing it up.

"An insider who had knowledge of the Scotland on Sunday story and how it was developing confessed the direct comments from Law Society officials “were too strong to put into the final version which appeared in the newspaper”.

Why run the story if the Law Society's accusation could not be supported?

"A journalist who was privately briefed by senior Law Society officials including former Chief Executive Douglas Mill who was forced to resign after a well known episode at the Scottish Parliament, described some comments from Law Society officials which are confirmed in notes, as “highly defamatory”. He went onto say “I felt I was being set up to write a piece implicating critics of lawyers in the attack.”

I'm not surprised.I would feel the same!

I hope the accused's defence team is reading all this.I think they have a case to call everyone involved in their client's defence!

Anonymous said...

"At least in England & Wales, the debate is live, while here in Scotland, there are no moves to name & shame crooked lawyers where all discussion of it appears to be censored by the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission."

Telling in its own rite,isnt it Peter.

This shows how undemocratic and closed shop Scotland still is compared even to England!

Anonymous said...

Kordowski has another bankruptcy order against him!

http://lawsocietymedia.org.uk/Press.aspx?ID=1501
Owner of 'Solicitors from Hell' made the subject of a bankruptcy order

Law Society statement:

The owner of the Solicitors from Hell website, Rick Kordowski, was made the subject of a bankruptcy order on 7 September 2011. The petition had been supported by a number of solicitors with damages and costs awards against him.

The Law Society understands Mr Kordowski to have been sued for libel on at least 16 occasions, and over £150,000 in outstanding judgments and orders to have accrued against him.

THIS IS THE PRICE OF EXPOSING CORRUPT LAWYERS IN THE UK AND HARDLY ANYONE SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT IT NOTHING EVEN ABOUT FREEDOM OF SPEECH JUST THE LEGAL SYSTEM USED TO MURDER ITS CRITICS WHILE ALL STAND BACK AND DO NOTHING

Anonymous said...

£400,000 a year is an outrageous salary,no wonder all these lawyers are robbing their clients because they have to pay hangers on at the Law Society and I'm sure Scotland is just the same is it?

Anonymous said...

Just imagine if the thieving bankers started calling all their critics "criminals".
This guy Rick Kordowski has to get himself some decent legal representation and fight back otherwise he will be walked over.

Anonymous said...

I thought Scotland was bad with the crooked lawyers problem now England seems to have it too.

Best avoid using them all!

Anonymous said...

1st comment I agree.
If I was served badly by my lawyer I'd write it up straight away especially now with all the publicity going on over Solicitors from Hell.

I hope Mr K and his followers start 1000 mirror sites!

Anonymous said...

The fact is Des Hudson picks up £400K a year as Chief Exec because solicitors in England & Wales are forced to cough up for it and if they dont they dont work.

I assume the same applies to Scotland and Lorna Jack.How much does she take home I wonder?

Anonymous said...

A very interesting blog Mr Cherbi.I cant even begin to quantify how much damage you have rightly caused to lawyers reputations.You are very much to the point in what you write.I imagine you receive a lot of threats yourself?

Anonymous said...

Two important cases come to mind:
R v Puddick (2011)
R v Fredrics (2010)

Both of these cases involved web publication of information critical of someone rich and powerful.

The Courts ultimately decided that neither case constituted harassment or any other criminal offence, despite attempts by the CPS to claim otherwise.

Please use this information in any instance where there is an attempt to silence the operators of this website.

Anonymous said...

It seems to be ok to name crooked lawyers as long as there's no money to be made from it!
Am I right?

Anonymous said...

Reading through your blog I found a number of good ideas about naming & shaming.
For one,you mentioned clients should be allowed to see the "regulatory history" of a lawyer which is a step in the right direction.
Also consumer reviews of all lawyers should be made a reality although deffo an independent website or someone we can all trust to control the reviews etc

Keep up the good work Peter!

Anonymous said...

Yes we certainly do know who the real criminals are,they are the ones in suits who are members of the Law Society who set out to rob their clients from the very start.The same kind lawyer criminal gets away with having their own complaints system backed up by favours from crooked Police and judges who step on their victims just to make sure no one gets any justice so we all know who the real criminals are!

Anonymous said...

Sign the Solicitors From Hell Petition at;

http://solicitorsfromhell.co.uk/

Anonymous said...

According to Which? "The action being taken against Solicitors from Hell by the Law Society is partly due, in our view, to the fact that LeO does not yet publish complaints data."

This describes the situation perfectly.

The Legal Ombudsman should stop delaying the publication of complaints data and the naming of these rotten solicitors & their law firms.

BadBiz said...

There are more websites out there than Solicitors from hell naming and shaming bad solicitors BadBiz is one which is really climbing up in the rankings which also has a forum for people to chat about the scenarios and encounters they have with 100's of companies. The Law Society has forgot the free speech angle and are totally wrong in its messages

Anonymous said...

I see there is a lot more to the attack on Leslie Cumming than we were led to believe in the newspapers.

Anonymous said...

More naming & shaming please Mr Kordowski!
We need more taking apart the legal profession at its seams from Peter Cherbi!

Anonymous said...

Doesnt Scotland have a Solicitors from Hell type website?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Doesnt Scotland have a Solicitors from Hell type website?

18 September 2011 18:20
Yes!

http://www.bentjudges.com

Because judges are just jumped up lawyers and are as much a problem in the system as crooked lawyers!

Judicial bias towards their legal colleagues is never far away in a courtroom when a lawyer faces litigation!

Anonymous said...

I had to read your post at least three times to believe what that newspaper said about you in their story.

It may be a bit of an insult however if your blog was only two weeks old at the time they clearly knew you were going to be a big threat to them later on so they tried to shut you up straight away.

I wonder.Has anyone asked if Cumming was set up by his own people in an attack to blame it on the Law Society's critics?

Its not such an extraordinary thing to ask given what they have done to others surely?

And what of the paper's role in all of this?

I see they did manage to give you a right of reply where you wisely wished Mr Cumming a speedy recovery (this must have made D.Mill choke) but the overall impression of the article is of bloody footsteps leading to..

Clearly its not just the lawyers who are out of control with chips on their shoulder in Scotland some parts of the media are too..

Anonymous said...

Yes we certainly do know who the real criminals are,they are the ones in suits who are members of the Law Society who set out to rob their clients from the very start.The same kind lawyer criminal gets away with having their own complaints system backed up by favours from crooked Police and judges who step on their victims just to make sure no one gets any justice so we all know who the real criminals are!

YES A PARAGRAPH OF FACT, COULD NOT HAVE PUT THIS BETTER MYSELF.

Anonymous said...

So Jane Irvine and the staff of the SLCC if you are reading this let me ask you why are there no SLCC consultations on naming & shaming in Scotland?

Are all we ordinary Scots to be kept down & out by the Scots legal mafia and from knowing the names of all the crooked lawyers and their law firms?

Or are we to assume all of them are crooked?

Anonymous said...

The Law Society filled with anti client extremists, who hate the very people they need to make a living.

I have seen loyality between GP's who would give patients fatal injections to save one of their own.

Website owners are criminal Mr Hudson? Well why do you not target those who posted the complaints rather than Rick. Is Mr Douglas Mill a criminal? His memo about killing off a legitimate complaint against the Master Policy, of a meeting between Marsh UK to kill of that complaint. Please do give us your non biased views on this?

No doubt in your mind no lawyer is a criminal, and this is the reason self regulation will end, because we will do that for you. Have a nice evening.

Anonymous said...

Its a wonder the paper didnt splatter you with a tin of red paint for the story (naturally on orders from the Law Society)

As already said you must be a big threat to them when they wanted to kill you and your blog off a couple of weeks after you started writing.

Scum in suits with an LLB fit to use as toilet paper.

Anonymous said...

Comment posted on 23 September 2011 20:34

Grow up!

Writing about problems created by lawyers is a lot less profitable for the so-called 'serious' end of the newspaper business than writing about problems resolved by lawyers.Criticise the legal profession and they threaten advertising or telling their members to stop buying your paper.

Dont confuse journalism with the truth in Scotland.Targeting Cherbi and campaigners like him on orders from those they are campaigning against is routine.Anyone who takes a stand against something that is so obviously fucking wrong is a prime target.Its been that way for years.Any journalist who refuses to write it up ends up out of the business like me.I'll never work for any Scottish paper again.

Anonymous said...

THE CORRUPT CABAL CONTROLLING THE SCOTTISH ESTABLISHMENT ARE ON THEIR KNEES,WE NEED TO FINISH THE JOB, AND BRING THEM TO ACCOUNT.

Stonehaven trial, 14th November, 2011, of Robert Green, holliedemandsjustice; this event, (if it goes ahead), will rely on a journalist's right to free speech.

The scandals that are bubbling away under the surface in Scotland, and further afield, are forming an unstoppable, critical mass that hopefully we will all live to see and be part of.

Power to your elbow, Peter, Rick Kordowski, and all human beings enjoined in this TRUTH TSUNAMI.

Hold Fast

Anonymous said...

CRIMINALISING CRITICS : Law Society of Scotland official told journalist : “Anyone who criticises the legal profession must be a criminal and should be treated like a criminal”.

The sentiments apparently expressed by Mr Hudson [LAW SOCIETY OF ENGLAND AND WALES CHIEF EXECUTIVE] who attempts to criminalise Mr Kordowski [FOUNDER OF SOLICITOES FROM HELL, GOOD MAN RICK] and critics of the legal profession are startlingly similar to opinions expressed in Scotland by the most senior officials at the Law Society of Scotland, individual solicitors, law firms and the Legal Defence Union, who have all attempted to close down critical websites naming & shaming crooked lawyers who are still working and whose clients are unaware of their poor records as solicitors. NOW THEY ARE OPERATING AT THE CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU. ANY PROFESSION WHO CANNOT TOLERATE FEEDBACK FROM THE PEOPLE THEY DEAL WITH ARE FUNDAMENTALLY DANGEROUS. THE EVIL NEWTORK LAWYERS ARE MUST BE BALANCED BY A NETWORK OF CLIENTS. ITS YOUR MONEY AND YOUR LIVES FOLKS, THEY WANT TO DEAL WITH YOU SECRETLY SO THEY HAVE ONE HELL OF A LOT TO HIDE. THEY ARE TERRIFIED OF DISSENT BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN RUINING PEOPLE'S LIVES FOR DECADES. HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE SEEN LAWYER SUE LAWYER FOR A RUINED CLIENT? THEY ARE A BROTHERHOOD, AND WE CANNOT BREAK INTO THE NETWORK THAT IS WHY WE CLIENTS HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHTS. THE LAW SOCIETIES DO NOT WANT E BAY TYPE FEEDBACK BECAUSE THIS WILL 100% PROVE THEY ARE DESTROYING HUMAN LIVES FOR PROFIT.

DISSENT IS CRITICAL TO A BALANCE OF POWER. THEY DO NOT WANT THAT BECAUSE LAFFERTY AND HUDSON'S JOBS WILL BE ON THE LINE WHEN THE PUBLIC FIND OUT WHAT CRIMINALS THE LAW SOCIETIES ARE. IF HUDSON OR LAFFERTY GOT THEIR CARS STOLEN AND THEY PHONED THE POLICE, AND THE POLICE DID NOTHING. THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CLIENT COMPLAINS TO THE LAW SOCIETIES. THEY DO NOTHING, THE POLICE WOULD BE SAYING CAR THEIVES HELP YOURSELVES AND THE LAW SOCIETIES LAWYERS HELP YOURSELVES TO YOUR CLIENTS ASSETS. THIS FOLKS IS THE REALITY AND DISSENT LIKE AN E BAY FEEDBACK SYSTEM ABOUT YOUR LAWYERS PERFORMANCE WILL PROVE THAT. THE LAW SOCIETIES OF THE UK ARE SUPPURATING BOILS OF CORRUPTION THAT DISSENT WILL LANCE, AND AND WEB SITES ARE THE ONLY WAY WE CAN DO THIS. VICTORY TO US.