Law Society of Scotland to review its own dodgy claims fund. THE Law Society of Scotland has announced a ‘root & branch review’ of the infamously corrupt Scottish Solicitors Guarantee Fund, a fund paid into by all members of the legal profession. The Guarantee Fund, which the society claims will be ‘independently’ reviewed, differs from the equally corrupt Master Policy in that the former pays out for victims of dishonest solicitors, while the latter is supposed to pay out for victims of negligent solicitors.
The Law Society claimed in an announcement its latest “wide ranging and independent review of the compensation fund”, to be carried out independently following an open tender process. will study the purpose of the Guarantee Fund along with the cover and benefits it provides to consumers. It will also consider the funding and governance arrangements and how these fit with the rapidly changing legal marketplace. The review is expected to be completed over the next 12 months with a report and recommendations made to the Society's regulatory committee.
Diary of Injustice has previously reported on how victims of crooked lawyers are poorly treated by the Scottish Solicitors Guarantee Fund, which has a poor track record at honouring its claim to compensate victims of corrupt solicitors : Law Society's 'Guarantee Fund' for clients of crooked lawyers revealed as multi million pound masterpiece of claims dodging corruption
However, in an attempt to counter previous and well publicised evidence against the Guarantee Fund’s integrity, Carole Ford, the non-solicitor convener of the Society's regulatory committee claimed in a statement issued by the Law Society : "By setting high standards for solicitors and regularly inspecting firms, our first responsibility is to try and prevent problems from arising in the first place. However, we also need a robust scheme that protects innocent clients when things do go wrong, particularly when clients lose money through no fault of their own and as a result of a solicitor's dishonesty.”
Ms Ford continued : "For over 60 years, the Guarantee Fund has been a cornerstone of the Scottish solicitor profession, giving assurance to consumers and being funded entirely by solicitors without the use of taxpayers' money. Maintaining the Fund and considering applications for payments from affected clients are just some of the many ways in which the Law Society works to protect the public interest. However, we know the legal market is changing and changing rapidly. That is why now is the right time to have a root and branch review of the Fund and consider whether the arrangements put in place by legislation are still effective and appropriate for today."
Commenting on Ms Ford’s claims, a legal insider retorted :”Well, now you know why financial claims against crooked lawyers have failed for the past sixty years – because lawyers and the Law Society of Scotland have been looking after their own and covering their own backs.”
The latest review of the Guarantee Fund, which has been mired in fraud, controversy and allegations of discrimination against clients who were placed in the unenviable position of having to claim for compensation against their dishonest solicitor, comes after various earlier reports from the powerless Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) found the fund lacking in its claims & provisions to pay out when the situation of almost financially ruined clients clearly merited compensation.
Over two years ago in September 2011, Diary of Injustice reported on the SLCC’s last attempt at a report into the Guarantee Fund, here : DISASTER REPORT : Scottish Legal Complaints Commission study of Law Society “Guarantee Fund” suffers 13% turnout, finds clients ‘treated as criminals’
The floundering attempt by Scotland’s ‘independent’, lawyer dominated SLCC to produce a report into the Guarantee Fund was hit by a poor response rate, partly due to the bungled arrangements put in place by the SLCC to research problems of the Guarantee Fund, and arguments between the regulator, the Law Society of Scotland and other lawyers lobby groups.
Report heard Law Society staff made Guarantee Fund claimants feel like criminals. The SLCC's Report carried out by the SLCC into the Scottish Solicitors Guarantee Fund heard from clients they were made to feel criminals by the Law Society of Scotland staff who controlled the compensation scheme. The SLCC survey was also hit by problems over the arrangements for distribution of the questionnaires, where almost unbelievably, the SLCC were forced to rely on the Law Society of Scotland to distribute the forms themselves, after refusing to hand over the identities of claimants to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.
One respondent to the survey stated : “It seemed as if the Scottish Solicitor’s Guarantee Fund were trying to pay as little as possible and were looking after their own interests. Again you were made to feel like a criminal at the hearing.”
Another respondent said : “I was not fully compensated for a fraud that was not my fault but my solicitor's, who was now in jail and yet I had to suffer financially and with stress.”
Comments from the five people who provided reasons for their satisfaction expressed relief that the process had come to an end and they perceived that the Fund had worked well for them.
One respondent said : “Achieved desired outcome although would have preferred not to have gone through the process at all.”Another respondent said : “[Because] I felt that I could move forward and bring closure to the whole affair [as] I had felt very let down by the solicitor involved in my particular case.”
Diary of Injustice featured a report on the SLCC’s Guarantee Fund research project as it took shape, HERE and upon publication of the SLCC’s report, carried out by Progressive, a research company based in Edinburgh, final figures revealed an abysmally low response rate of only 13%, where the research company contracted by the SLCC ultimately received only 19 replies out of 145 questionnaires sent out by the Law Society of Scotland.
The research firm conducting the survey on behalf of the SLCC said in their report : “Progressive was not able to receive a database of contact details from the Law Society of Scotland. As such the questionnaire packs were sent to LSS for labelling and distribution.”
The company were further critical of the Law Society’s methods of distribution, stating “A large proportion of questionnaires were not sent directly to claimants. Sending questionnaires first to solicitors to pass on to their clients would have affected the likelihood of the questionnaires reaching them and also their likelihood of completing them.” Progressive further warned : “This is likely to impact response rates.”
The report also claims : “Missing information on labels. A few solicitors fed back that there was no client contact on the packs they were sent so were unable to forward these on, again, affecting the final response rate (at least 4 reported this to be the case)” and that some clients who were sent questionnaires by the Law Society of Scotland could not be traced because they had moved address.
CONDUCT OF REGULATOR PREJUDICED CONSUMER CLAIMS
Former SLCC Board Member Margaret Scanlan branded Guarantee Fund claimants as “chancers”. Previous investigations in to the SLCC’s attitude towards clients and compensations claims against solicitors have revealed prejudice against consumers at the very heart of the SLCC itself, which spilled out into the media when now former SLCC Board Member Margaret Scanlan raged against claimants to the Guarantee Fund, branding them “chancers” in a series of bitter emails revealed through a Freedom of Information investigation here : HERE& HERE
Continuing investigations into the SLCC by Diary of Injustice further revealed another board member, David Smith , married to Court of Session judge Lady Smith, had described claimants to the Master Policy, the Law Society of Scotland’s equally corrupt Personal Indemnity Insurance coverage for negligent solicitors, as “frequent flyers”.
The SLCC had attempted to withhold the identity of the board member who made the anti-client remarks, however, the regulator was ordered to release the information by a decision of the Scottish Information Commissioner. Diary of Injustice reported on the move by the then Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion (who is now a board member of the SLCC), here : FOI Chief Dunion orders Scottish Legal Complaints Commission to release board member’s anti-client jibes, Master Policy study details
Two earlier reports published by Diary of Injustice featured findings of the University of Manchester 2009 report into the Guarantee Fund & Master Policy, here : 'Ground-breaking' investigation into Law Society's Master Policy insurance reveals realities of corrupt claims process against crooked lawyers and here : Suicides, illness, broken families and ruined clients reveal true cost of Law Society's Master Policy which 'allows solicitors to sleep at night'
If you have a claim against the Scottish Solicitors Guarantee Fund, or the Master Insurance Policy, tell us at Diary of Injustice at scottishlawreporters@gmail.com
The only criminals here are the Law Society and anyone who supports this Guarantee Fund and the Master Policy sham
ReplyDeleteWhere clients claiming compensation ‘are made to feel like criminals’ so accurate a heading. I have said on your blog before DOI stop using lawyers if you can. I know that is not always practicable but remember if they ruin you the whole profession become your enemy.
ReplyDeleteI remember Peter wrote that he dealt with pure evil at the Law Society, I can agree 100% he is so right. Don't trust these people, their complaints system is a closed shop, which means the lawyer who ruined you has a string of previous victims. We live in a country where access to the courts is forbidden if you want to sue a lawyer. And the Fund forget compensation from that, the deck of cards is always stacked against you the client.
So we just have another survey run by the Law Society where they pick out the people they dont want to hear from and the lawyers they do..
ReplyDeleteSounds like just another crooked Law Society scheme for a slap on the back Press Release yeah?
The solicitor you outed as Niels Lockhart's LDU rep wrote something about how to avoid the Guarantee Fund interview and how to run to the LDU when necessary..
ReplyDeleteIf you dont mind I'll post it over several comments because your comment section will not let me past it all in as one.
I think you and your readers should be able to see it and comment on Mr McCann's piece.
Incidentally,I am a solicitor and one thing I do not enjoy is constantly having to pay high premiums into the SSGF to pay for the Law Society's habit of covering up for the worst elements of our profession.
http://www.journalonline.co.uk/Magazine/57-5/1011161.aspx#.
How to avoid that Guarantee Fund interview, and worse...
14 May 12
Some advice, based on Legal Defence Union experience, on how to prevent a Law Society inspection turning into a nightmare
by James McCann
Many solicitors are still finding that a routine inspection, which they were confident would only reveal a few book-keeping or other minor administrative corrections, suddenly turns into a personal and professional nightmare.
The latest version of the Money Laundering Regulations dates from December 2007, and there are important additional duties from 1 November 2011. It may be helpful to understand the approach of our regulators, the Law Society of Scotland.
1. The basic documentation
The requirement is to have a certificate in all cases, and for all files. That must be in a form that shows who did the ID check, the means by which it was done, and the date on which it was done. That certificate has to be kept for five years after the conclusion of the work.
2. Where to keep it
There is a logistical problem in deciding whether that certificate should be on the client file, in a central file, or both. If the file is lost or mandated away, the only available evidence of compliance may go with it. If the regulator asks for proof of compliance, e.g. at a routine inspection, or on a problem or client complaint developing, it is not desirable to have to embark on an urgent file search. Depending on the firm’s case management system, a central ID record for at least all medium to high-risk cases, as described below, is best, possibly copied to the client file.
3. Assessment of risk levels
One feature of the post-2007 system is that different levels of scrutiny are required for different types of case. That will immediately create a problem if you haven’t bothered to assimilate what is needed. In some ways, there are advantages in the new approach, for low-risk cases. If you have routine instructions that don’t really need advanced money laundering procedures (e.g. a stream of reparation cases from a trade union, or in legal advice or legal aid cases), you are entitled to do a shortened or simplified certificate.
You can devise something for your own practice, so that not every case has to have the full rigmarole of copy passports, utility bills etc. That could be a two-line “Adequate ID from incoming papers, which include d.o.b., NI no, employment/medical history etc”. That might seem rather minimalist, but the regulator, having seen that in a low-risk type of case a professional judgment has been exercised in compliance with the regulations, will not usually try to second-guess that judgment, or tell solicitors how to run their business, where personation or fraud seems highly improbable.
4. Delegated ID
You cannot rely on ID by others, except in quite limited circumstances. For example, where the client is some distance away, the regulations allow for that to be done by another regulated legal professional, provided they know, and have acknowledged, that you will be relying on their ID measures, and not doing your own. A photostat from an IFA, or other dealer or agent will definitely not do, and will bring the regulator’s scrutiny down on your firm.
More of Mr McCann's advice
ReplyDelete5. Don’t leave out your staff
All staff have to be made aware of these regulations, which have to observed strictly and quite independently of the other checks that you have to do on the source of money. You must be able to show both initial instruction of staff, and reasonably regular updating of their training.
6. Monitoring
An adequate office system therefore requires identification at the outset of the risk level for each particular transaction, and monitoring by regular review. A deal may settle down and become wholly non-controversial, or it may develop the other way. The solicitor is expected to be able to demonstrate a full professional awareness from first to last of what might be going on.
The regulator will expect to see evidence of proactive monitoring of risk, such as a file review, say, every month by the MLRO on a spot-check basis (e.g. every tenth file), and a file note or record on a separate monitoring of risk document, of any development in the transaction, and the decision taken and why. That sheet can helpfully be left on the file, except where a SOCA report has gone in ? the record of that has to be confidentially kept to avoid a charge of tipping off. The regulator will accordingly expect to see evidence of both proactive and reactive monitoring, e.g. by recording what action was taken, on detecting particularly any of the features listed in [7] below.
7. The usual suspects
last of it
ReplyDelete8. The CML conditions
Always bear in mind, and get familiar with, the CML conditions, or the particular version attached to your loan instructions. All the variations in section [7] are bound to be reported to the lender, and that is best done as soon as the information is received. If you leave it until the time of reporting on title and drawing down funds, you are unlikely to get the all clear in time to meet the proposed settlement date, if at all.
It is not enough that a loan on the “top line” price is backed by a valuation from a reputable firm. LDU experience is that a surprising number of solicitors have been willing to draw down funds in breach of half a dozen CML requirements, by not disclosing a prior transaction within six months, or a relationship pre-existing between buyer and seller, or a discount more than 5%, or part of the price passing direct, or a recent transaction reflecting on value.
Most importantly (remembering that the lender is also your client), anything that a reputable solicitor would think their client should know should be reported, whether spelt out in the rules or not. Apart from the liability under civil law for breach of the warranties in the loan conditions, it is misconduct to mislead your client. The SSDT, on a 1989 prosecution over a disguised discount, also adverted to the impact on the public registers of solicitors feeding in what is essentially bogus information about the true price, thereby skewing the information upon which statisticians and all sorts of other people rely for assessing the economic reality of the property market.
Silence is not consent. Also, bear in mind that if you pick up something needing a report to the lender when monitoring a transaction, you may encounter silence or only a neutral acknowledgment from the lender. Reminder phone calls may only lead you into a call centre maze, but the CML conditions are quite specific to the effect that you still do not have authority to use the loan funds. That can cause havoc with entry imminent, but the decision to act and use the funds will only bring the whole problem down on your head, instead of where it belongs which is somewhere between the client and the agent, dealer or broker who put in that loan application with which you were never involved.
The answer is to insist on being in charge and informed throughout. When in doubt, act early and use the Society and LDU helplines.
Think about your future. Be aware that the way such transactions are likely to unfold, will be in a failure to keep up the loan repayments on what may well have been a scheme to create a large and quick cash dropdown. On a calling-up notice, repossession and resale, the inevitable shortfall will be claimed from you and/or the Master Policy or Guarantee Fund. If you have been blind (negligently or wilfully) to the fact that the whole thing was a fraud designed to get the lender to advance far more than was actually necessary to buy the property, you may well find yourself in breach of the Master Policy, and uncovered, so that the insolvency courts await, to provide a miserable end to your career.
James A McCann is chairman of the Legal Defence Union
and the useless Scottish Legal Complaints Commission stood by and did bugger all
ReplyDeletere Dunion now on its board - I thought we would have some headlines by now along the lines of "Former Scottish Information Commissioner makes a difference at the SLCC" alas I see none.
I wonder how many claims have been made to this fund involving lawyers who went on to become judges and if those claims were successful or not (I am guessing not)
ReplyDeleteWell of course a fund run by lawyers intended to compensate people who have been ripped off by lawyers is going to be rotten to the core so I am not surprised to see the disgusting attitudes of those at the regulator.
ReplyDeleteActually putting those kinds of insults into writing in their own emails gives us the truth about how these people really think about the rest of us so well done for your perseverance and all the coverage in the media.
Where does power reside? The Law Society of Scotland, our country's real unelected government, with No No the Oligarch at the top. MSP's bend policy for their friends. And it is meant to be a democracy. Having a vote means nothing, an illusion the sheep have the power when their elected representatives are traitors residing in a £400 million ganghut. Trust none of them.
ReplyDeleteI simply cannot bring myself to trust lawyers or anything to do with them. For me trust in this profession if infinitely impossible.
ReplyDeleteExcellent report blowing wide open the continuing travesty that is the self 'regulation' (ha-ha) of the Scottish legal profession.
ReplyDeleteA little digging reveals that Royal Sun Alliance and Travelers insurance were in league with Marsh when penalties included a fine of $850 million dollars in what were widely reported (outside of the UK) as 'the Marsh Frauds'.
These fraudulent business activities included delaying or denying accident and illness claims insurers knew were valid.
Marsh is of course the controlling insurance provider of the law society of Scotland - "an organisation with a fundamental dishonesty at its heart" according to one solicitor - and has no less a person that Scottish Tory Politician Lord Ian Lang as its chairman.
More at:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100726005470/en/Lord-Lang-Monkton-Succeed-Stephen-R.-Hardis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_%26_McLennan#Marsh_in_the_news
Very good.Now we have a point of comparison with the SLCC Guarantee Fund survey.
ReplyDeleteDo not expect any more honesty from the Law Society version!
The Law Society and SLCC and the formers membership are obsessive compulsive pathological liars. They are against all clients, as you will find out if your legal issues go wrong do to a corrupt lawyer. Trust us, the victims who have dealt with them.
ReplyDeleteIn other words if you are caught out lying to clients make a run to the Legal Defence Union to get your stories straight before speaking to anyone else!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe only criminals here are the Law Society and anyone who supports this Guarantee Fund and the Master Policy sham
25 November 2013 21:23
Agreed! and this includes the SLCC waste of space full of lawyers and Law Society stooges
http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2006csoh148.html is usually what happens to court cases involving the Guarantee Fund
ReplyDeleteUnhappy with the SLCC's version they decided to produce one of their own and bill clients for it.
ReplyDeleteBoth are as bad as each other.Lawyers take on clients and inflate their hopes of an impossibly huge settlement just to get the work and clients have unreasonable expectations of what the law can do and what it cannot do.
ReplyDeleteWhen it all ends up in a complaint naturally the lawyer is going to come out of it better than the client.This is due to most people not giving a toss about the legal system until they end up needing it and when they are at that stage the damage is already done.
If you want better law you should be having a go at your mps and msps who have basically allowed the Law Society to do as it pleases and protect its own.
You have no chance of getting your money back from this guarantee fund and believe me it guarantees nothing.We were forced to put in a claim to it after the Law Society talked away all our evidence of negligence on the part of our solicitor and said he was dishonest not negligent
ReplyDeleteAt first we thought this a good thing and they told us a claim to the guarantee fund is a lot easier than the master policy.They made us put the claim through our solicitor and all the paperwork for that cost us over 2 thousand pounds alone and the claim was for 45 thousand our solicitor said we would get his expenses back.it took three years for us to be told they were not paying out and the same day we received their decision our solicitor withdrew from acting and sent us a bill for another 3 thousand pounds threatening to take legal action if we did not pay him.Have still not paid and he is still threatening and the Law Society will not answer our letters so this is not a guarantee fund at all it is fraud as you said and no one wants to listen or hear about it just so our first solicitor goes on working and now our second solicitor is chasing is for more money even though he said the last time there was nothing more to owe him.All liars at the Law Society and the guarantee fund anyone who has been through it will tell you the same it is a horrible experience
A fund run by lawyers intended to compensate people who have been ripped off by lawyers is simply self interest in action. Everything about these people is corrupt. They strip people of legal rights when those people have a solid case for compensation against them and this is the reason no lawyer can be honest or trustworthy. One actually wished someone would blow DOI up. Beggars belief. Yes Peter Cherbi and his colleagues do have supporters and we tell everyone about this bent mendacious profession with no scruples or decency.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you nailed them once again on the Guarantee Fund.Interesting to see what McCann was giving out as advice!
ReplyDelete#Anonymous @ 26 November 2013 18:58
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to send in more details of your case and what happened some media attention may benefit your position and help others in the same boat ... email Diary of Injustice at scottishlawreporters@gmail.com
Lawyers and their pals should not be allowed to control or have anything to do with any compensation fund against them
ReplyDelete“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new
ReplyDeleteevidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is
extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it
is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize,
ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.”
― Frantz Fanon, Psychiatrist and Author, Black Skin, White Masks, and The Wretched of the Earth.
One thing is certain in all of this,if there is any change to help people out against their bent lawyers it will be down to you and the Sunday Mail because no one else is able to write the way you people do!
ReplyDeleteGood work and thanks for caring
Salmond rants on about Scotland's future when he sits of his fat ass and does nothing about these crooks who rob people of human rights and dignity. We are not all equal in legal terms Alex and I will be voting No. I am not particularly keen on Westminster either but I detest the SNP and MSP's in general who turn a blind eye to this most corrupt group of gangsters who call themselves professionals.
ReplyDeleteWe voted for a parliament to have more autonomy over our country not to be robbed of legal rights when lawyers decide to withdraw them underpinned by their lawyer loving First Minister. The Law Society are Scotland's unelected unofficial government because the MSP's are their stooges, what a repugnant group of people. This is where real power lies.
Law Society fund, you get tortured and end up with £000000000000000. Ask those who have tried to claim it.
ReplyDeleteDealing with a lawyer results in what I call legalized theft, the lawyer is protected and you are ruined.
If Scotland does get independence I hope this rat infested Law Society is culled along with all the other enslaving unionist institutions of the lawyer like professions
ReplyDeleteWhat good is a survey on the Law Society's guarantee fund if the lawyers and their cohorts are doing it themselves??
ReplyDeleteOh yes I know the Law Society and their chums will go to extreme lengths to say this is all being done independently but we in the real world know lawyers to be the biggest liars of them all.
It should be the Scottish Parliament who look into this have a review and invite people in to talk about their experiences instead of the old pals act at the Law Society having control again?
but you know how they are getting way with it right?
ReplyDeleteits because of those crooked judges you are exposing
because the Law society can sit back and do as it pleases because it has all the judges on side and stuff everyone else and clients wee old women who lose their house cause of their filthy lawyer etc etc yes mate it all comes back to those judges and the support they are giving to the Law society every time but I suppose you know that anyway its just that more people around need to wake up to the fact the judges are providing a white card to these Law society spivs and goons and all the other hangers on out there who rip people off and just walk away without having to answer for it
Judges.The ones who get away with writing their own rules and hiding all their secrets we are now getting to know about thanks to you and the Sunday Mail!
If you are looking for information about claims I was told by my solicitor to put a claim into the Law Society for the mess my solicitor got me into over the sale of our house.Put in the claim five years ago and heard nothing since so again the guarantee fund is just a waste of space like the Law Society and all lawyers.
ReplyDelete27 November 2013 12:43
ReplyDelete"Salmond rants on about Scotland's future when he sits of his fat ass and does nothing about these crooks who rob people of human rights and dignity."
I agree and like you will NOT be voting for 'independce' which will allow Salmond and his joke of a 'justice' mnister McRoadkill to continue as they began several years ago.....protecting the Law Society of Scotland from independent regulation and any proper or accountable scrutiny.
Do Turkeys vote for Christmas?
Absolutely EVERYONE knows that the Law Society of Scotland's Guarantee Fund and their Master Policy arrangements are a complete FRAUD but nothing is done about it and they are allowed to operate in a state whereby they are above the law?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhere clients claiming compensation ‘are made to feel like criminals’ so accurate a heading. I have said on your blog before DOI stop using lawyers if you can. I know that is not always practicable but remember if they ruin you the whole profession become your enemy.
I remember Peter wrote that he dealt with pure evil at the Law Society, I can agree 100% he is so right. Don't trust these people, their complaints system is a closed shop, which means the lawyer who ruined you has a string of previous victims. We live in a country where access to the courts is forbidden if you want to sue a lawyer. And the Fund forget compensation from that, the deck of cards is always stacked against you the client.
25 November 2013 21:46
-------------------------------------
The Law Society of Scotland are quite simply a criminal organisation who are allowed to break the law with impunity safe in the knowledge that they are UNTOUCHABLE?
As a result of the way that the Police are 'Instructed' what they can and cannot do by way of investigating crime by a lawyer, the Procurator Fiscal?
If a PF steps out of line and abides by the law, they are hammered by their bosses (lawyers) at the Crown Office?
Ergo, in Scotland the Law Society of Scotland (Office Bearers) have used their power to make Scottish lawyers effectively above the law, unless they have crossed the Law Society in some way in which case they get struck-off?
The Law Society of Scotland are thus a maniacal, out of control and corrupt body?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteand the useless Scottish Legal Complaints Commission stood by and did bugger all
re Dunion now on its board - I thought we would have some headlines by now along the lines of "Former Scottish Information Commissioner makes a difference at the SLCC" alas I see none.
25 November 2013 22:29
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
The SLCC is a cruel sham and is a wing of the Law Society of Scotland, hiding in plain sight to do the dirty work of the Law Society of Scotland and to leave them smelling of roses?
Incidentally,I am a solicitor and one thing I do not enjoy is constantly having to pay high premiums into the SSGF to pay for the Law Society's habit of covering up for the worst elements of our profession.
ReplyDelete)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(!(!(!(!(!(
Imagine what your GF premiums would really be had the Law Society of Scotland had acted lawfully and paid out to Client victims of crooked Scottish lawyers?
£10,000.00 per annum?
£20,000.00 per annum?
£50,000.00 per annum?
More?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhere does power reside? The Law Society of Scotland, our country's real unelected government, with No No the Oligarch at the top. MSP's bend policy for their friends. And it is meant to be a democracy. Having a vote means nothing, an illusion the sheep have the power when their elected representatives are traitors residing in a £400 million ganghut. Trust none of them.
26 November 2013 00:52
********************************
100% true?
Just wait until the Scottish People vote for Independence in 2014 and then see how our 'so-called' Scottish lawyers sell us down the river to their brethren English lawyers, all to enrich themselves?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
The only criminals here are the Law Society and anyone who supports this Guarantee Fund and the Master Policy sham
25 November 2013 21:23
Agreed! and this includes the SLCC waste of space full of lawyers and Law Society stooges
26 November 2013 12:46
£££££££££££££££££££££
The SLCC is the Law Society of Scotland?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteBoth are as bad as each other.Lawyers take on clients and inflate their hopes of an impossibly huge settlement just to get the work and clients have unreasonable expectations of what the law can do and what it cannot do.
When it all ends up in a complaint naturally the lawyer is going to come out of it better than the client.This is due to most people not giving a toss about the legal system until they end up needing it and when they are at that stage the damage is already done.
If you want better law you should be having a go at your mps and msps who have basically allowed the Law Society to do as it pleases and protect its own.
26 November 2013 15:05
Cvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcv
Only these measley words could have come from a Scottish lawyer?
The truth is that Scottish lawyers do not see their Clients as human beings?
All they see is a body with a massive £ symbol as a head?
They live in a false paradigm where they do not need to try, do not need to have minimum standards of conduct and do not need to concern themselves about complying with the law?
The system the Law Society of Scotland have created has guaranteed Scotland a perpetual conveyor belt of criminals?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteYou have no chance of getting your money back from this guarantee fund and believe me it guarantees nothing.We were forced to put in a claim to it after the Law Society talked away all our evidence of negligence on the part of our solicitor and said he was dishonest not negligent
At first we thought this a good thing and they told us a claim to the guarantee fund is a lot easier than the master policy.They made us put the claim through our solicitor and all the paperwork for that cost us over 2 thousand pounds alone and the claim was for 45 thousand our solicitor said we would get his expenses back.it took three years for us to be told they were not paying out and the same day we received their decision our solicitor withdrew from acting and sent us a bill for another 3 thousand pounds threatening to take legal action if we did not pay him.Have still not paid and he is still threatening and the Law Society will not answer our letters so this is not a guarantee fund at all it is fraud as you said and no one wants to listen or hear about it just so our first solicitor goes on working and now our second solicitor is chasing is for more money even though he said the last time there was nothing more to owe him.All liars at the Law Society and the guarantee fund anyone who has been through it will tell you the same it is a horrible experience
26 November 2013 18:58
/////////////////////////////////////////////
Unfortunately an all too typical sad state of affairs?
You discover you have become the latest victim of a crooked Scottish lawyer, so you report your crooked lawyer to the Law Society of Scotland (Of course the Law Society of Scotland have known about your crooked lawyer for years and have continuously kept them out of jail over many years)?
Then they say, oh but you cannot claim against the Guarantee Fund as it is a fund of last resort.....You must make a claim against the Master Policy.....?
This pantomime gets stretched out over years and finally you get another bill (as you have described) and are told mockingly that you should have claimed against the Guarantee Fund?
So, in disbelief you try to claim against the Guarantee Fund and they say so etching like, 'oh, you are too late, you should have claimed to the GF when you had the chance....' Or your lawyer was negligent not dishonest, therefore you are entitled to zero?
An evil, vindictive and cruel cabal who are allowed to commit fraud as easy as it is to greedily gulp down their gravy lunch, whilst toasting your demise and humiliation over an expensive red wine?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIf Scotland does get independence I hope this rat infested Law Society is culled along with all the other enslaving unionist institutions of the lawyer like professions
27 November 2013 15:32
Xxxxxxx.x,x,xxx.xxx.x..xxx
Nope.
They will just get stronger and even more powerful?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhat good is a survey on the Law Society's guarantee fund if the lawyers and their cohorts are doing it themselves??
Oh yes I know the Law Society and their chums will go to extreme lengths to say this is all being done independently but we in the real world know lawyers to be the biggest liars of them all.
It should be the Scottish Parliament who look into this have a review and invite people in to talk about their experiences instead of the old pals act at the Law Society having control again?
27 November 2013 16:34
-//;:;-:/:/;/;-:-:-;/;/;/:-:-:/:/;/;-;-:
There is ZERO incentive for a Scottish lawyer NOT to lie?
The law society of Scotland do ot even try to hide their criminality such is their confidence that they are above the law?
ReplyDeleteWell I am really pleased to see people are now starting to realise it is the judges who are holding up reform of the way people do business in the courts.It stands to reason those who head the courts (the judges) have a vested interest in keeping everything the same and as Peter has shown us in this petition we now have something to aim for.
ReplyDeletekeep up the good work all and nice to have a comments section we can discuss stuff like this
After being defrauded out of hundred of thousands of pounds by her crooked Scottish lawyer, my friend was told she would be compensated by the Law Society of Scotland's Guarantee Fund after years of her complaining.
ReplyDeleteThey asked her to submit a form of expenses to cover the cost of her stamps & paper!
Incidentally, I am a solicitor and one thing I do not enjoy is constantly having to pay high premiums into the SSGF to pay for the Law Society's habit of covering up for the worst elements of our profession.
ReplyDelete===========================================
The Law Society bureaucracy was set up with the clear aim in mind of protecting lawyers, and it is utterly impossible for me to trust any lawyer. The client is like a pawn in power terms but the opposition have a full board of pawns, rooks, bishops, castles, king and queen. All working together to protect each other, and destroy. That is many clients experience of dealing with Scottish lawyers, in a football match between lawyers and clients the Law Society would break the client teams legs.
The Law Society of Scotland created a win-win game which is designed in a way that all lawyer participants can profit from it in one way or the other. And this is what self regulation is the mechanism where there is a zero sum game between the lawyer and client because the lawyers gain is the clients loss, and the lawyer is left to defraud more clients. This is what the Law Society are, fraudsters that operate in a judicial vacuum where the law does no apply to them. Unsurprisingly they don't want this setup changed. Every time they produce a press statement or report I think liars.
ReplyDeleteI am not saying do not report your lawyer, but please be aware when you do you are handing control over to the Law Society, in other words you are participating in the inevitable coverup.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIf Scotland does get independence I hope this rat infested Law Society is culled along with all the other enslaving unionist institutions of the lawyer like professions.
===============================
More chance of clients who complain being culled. Joiners throw away burn out drill bits and get replacements, lawyers do the same with clients, use them until they have fleeced them and the Law Society cover everything up.
wonder how many the guarantee fund has killed off just like this master policy affair
ReplyDeletecreepy isnt it that lawyers are allowed to get away with all this while just about every other part of society has been held up on the news as corrupt and full of sleaze
If the BT unionists wanted to pull Mr Salmond down they should challenge how he has responded to the information he has regarding the Hollie Greig scandal and how the Legal system and the Police have reacted to the same information, but of course as Mr Cameron said "we" are all in it together.!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is all about the humiliation of client victims because they can
ReplyDeleteHello Law Society, you don't investigate when clients have their money cut off by a doctor and solicitor working together in litigation cases because the doctors, lawyers and employers all insured by the same company.
ReplyDeleteThat is what happened to a member of my family. As for the Guarantee Fund the only guarantee is that clients get £0.00 and additional stress when they find out their lawyer will be allowed to keep practicing. You are professional con merchants and you and I know there is no complaints system. And I think your denial of the reality is because your profession collectively suffer from cognitive dissonance. And because it
is so important to protect the core belief, {for you lawyers are honest)you will rationalize,
ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.” Frantz Fanon was right. Rather than face reality you detest A Diary of Injustice for telling the truth.
There is ZERO incentive for a Scottish lawyer NOT to lie.
ReplyDeleteXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
This is because in the lawyers world of self regulation there are no laws to break and where there are no laws there can be no injustice. In other words from the Guarantee Fund administrators lawyers have doe nothing wrong. If a thief steals from a bank he may be on their security system. The Law Society is a bureaucratic security system for lawyers where their crimes are hidden. Plato talked about what would happen if someone could be invisible, self regulation makes the lawyers crimes invisible that is why so many people are ruined without a chance of compensation. Anyone who has had to deal with the Law Society knows this is the awful reality.
I was also advised to put a claim into the guarantee fund by my new solicitor who was supposed to be pursuing my old solicitor for negligence and dishonesty.That was 8 years ago and since last year have been without any legal representation because the Law Society have blacklisted us even though it was them who wrote to me suggesting I put a claim into their guarantee fund.
ReplyDeleteIts all a fraud going to a lawyer and expecting any honesty really you would all be better burning your money via your winter heating than spending it on some rat in an office who has qualifications of how to rip people off and get away with it.
Hope the comment is not too strong please publish.
The Law Society of Scotland is the head and body of the snake, report your lawyer and you will get bitten again. As we clients cannot disband the Law Society we must tell the public what they are up against, spread the word folks.
ReplyDeleteI dealt with a lawyer once and he taught me a brutal lesson never to trust another one and I never will. They are evil people. Their Law Society sets out to break people who complain about lawyers. Treat them like a Black Mamba, the snake will kill you instantly, the Law Society will grind you down so that you feel dead, and clients have committed suicide in the past, stay away from lawyers, at all costs.
ReplyDeleteMany of us voted for the Scottish Parliament and this is what we got. Criminals in bed with MSP's Independence a potential error of the gravest kind.
ReplyDeleteThey made us put the claim through our solicitor and all the paperwork for that cost us over 2 thousand pounds alone and the claim was for 45 thousand our solicitor said we would get his expenses back. It took three years for us to be told they were not paying out and the same day we received their decision our solicitor withdrew from acting and sent us a bill for another 3 thousand pounds threatening to take legal action if we did not pay him.Have still not paid and he is still threatening and the Law Society will not answer our letters so this is not a guarantee fund at all it is fraud as you said and no one wants to listen or hear about it just so our first solicitor goes on working and now our second solicitor is chasing is for more money even though he said the last time there was nothing more to owe him.All liars at the Law Society and the guarantee fund anyone who has been through it will tell you the same it is a horrible experience.
ReplyDelete++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Yes they are radical evil and this is standard practice. They do this all of the time, I have every sympathy with you and any client who has suffered at the hands of what amounts to legalized theft, legalized mafia. They threaten you with legal action because they know you will not get legal representation. They are a bad lot.
The Law Society of Scotland are well used to perverting the course of justice by unlawfully keeping known crooked Scottish lawyers out of jail?
ReplyDeleteThe Law Society of Scotland are involved in mass scale fraud against the Scottish People insofar as they are unlawfully protecting their own known crooked lawyers and preventing claims on their Master Policy and Guarantee Fund?
Their misfeance artificially keeps Scottish lawyer Liability Insurance Premiums and client victim claims artificially low as well as keeping crooked Scottish lawyers out of jail and continuing their unlawful criminal activities against an unaware Scottish Public?
The climate is right for these protected criminals to answer for their unlawful actions?
When are the police going to come to the aid of the People of Scotland and arrest the criminals within the Law Society of Scotland who are only interested in themselves and furthering their political influence in pursuit of power in Scotland?
ReplyDeleteThey have their poisoned claws sunk firmly into the belly of Alex Salmond such that he seems incapable of their deceit and has fallen for their sickly sweet insidious charms?
People left with no rights against Scottish Lawyers, legally robbed, condoned by our MSP's. Ask yourselves where real political power resides? Voting won't change this injustice.
ReplyDelete“A large proportion of questionnaires were not sent directly to claimants. Just think how horrified the Law Society would be with a E Bay type feedback system for clients to use. Yes ask the victims never the perpetrators.
ReplyDeleteWhether it is the guarantee fund or the Master Policy there is only one organization controlling both - the disgraced and corrupt insurer Marsh, chaired by a former Scottish Tory Cabinet member lord lang.
ReplyDeleteA small world isn't it.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I am a solicitor and one thing I do not enjoy is constantly having to pay high premiums into the SSGF to pay for the Law Society's habit of covering up for the worst elements of our profession.
===========================================
The Law Society bureaucracy was set up with the clear aim in mind of protecting lawyers, and it is utterly impossible for me to trust any lawyer. The client is like a pawn in power terms but the opposition have a full board of pawns, rooks, bishops, castles, king and queen. All working together to protect each other, and destroy. That is many clients experience of dealing with Scottish lawyers, in a football match between lawyers and clients the Law Society would break the client teams legs.
28 November 2013 17:41
----------------------------//------
Remember the bit in the Solicitor (Scotland) Act 1980, where it said that the Law Society of Scotland have a duty to look after the interests of the Public?
Well, the Law Society of Scotland are overtly in defiance of this legislation as they choose what it in the best interests of known crooked Scottish lawyers over the interests of their Client victims?
Their whole insidious secret behind the scenes dealings, where they collude with the State to protect their crooked members and themselves is in contravention with the law and the police should have several Office Bearer's arms up their back?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI am not saying do not report your lawyer, but please be aware when you do you are handing control over to the Law Society, in other words you are participating in the inevitable coverup.
28 November 2013 17:53
?£?££?£?£?£?£?£?£?£?£
Report your crooked Scottish lawyer to the journalists at DOI and they will help you take the appropriate action?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThere is ZERO incentive for a Scottish lawyer NOT to lie.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
This is because in the lawyers world of self regulation there are no laws to break and where there are no laws there can be no injustice. In other words from the Guarantee Fund administrators lawyers have doe nothing wrong. If a thief steals from a bank he may be on their security system. The Law Society is a bureaucratic security system for lawyers where their crimes are hidden. Plato talked about what would happen if someone could be invisible, self regulation makes the lawyers crimes invisible that is why so many people are ruined without a chance of compensation. Anyone who has had to deal with the Law Society knows this is the awful reality.
29 November 2013 10:20
Cvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcv
This can be exemplified by the incredible end of year Report 2010 by the SSDT chairman (page 7, see at http://www.ssdt.org.uk/reports/resources/AnnualReport_Final%20Draft.pdf ), where he describes crooked Scottish lawyers stealing from their Clients as ...
'BORROWING WITHOUT CONSENT'
So, to what every normal thinking person is straight theft, to the Law Society of Scotland and their crooked apologists they see seek to minimise the case against their brethren by describing the crime as a vastly less serious issue, which is intended to pervert the course of justice in favour of the crooked Scottish lawyer and against the rights of the Client victim, who they seek to humiliate with impunity?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI was also advised to put a claim into the guarantee fund by my new solicitor who was supposed to be pursuing my old solicitor for negligence and dishonesty.That was 8 years ago and since last year have been without any legal representation because the Law Society have blacklisted us even though it was them who wrote to me suggesting I put a claim into their guarantee fund.
Its all a fraud going to a lawyer and expecting any honesty really you would all be better burning your money via your winter heating than spending it on some rat in an office who has qualifications of how to rip people off and get away with it.
Hope the comment is not too strong please publish.
29 November 2013 19:46
...,,....,..,.....,..,.,.,.....,.,..,.,..,
Yet another victim of the Law Society of Scotland's full-on attack and humiliation of Client victims?
Here's the thing. The Law Society of Scotland only asked you for your statement about the crime perpetrated against you, 'as an information gathering tool', where they want to know exactly what you know and what you have got against their crooked Scottish lawyer & the Law Society of Scotland?
This is solely to start building their respective defences against your valid complaint?
Then, instead of reporting this crime to the Police, they trap you into their complaints procedure and drag-it-out over years in the hope that you will suffer I'll health, due to the shear unlawfulness of it all and that you just give up?
This is their malevolent strategy?
How can they get away with this I hear you ask?
Well, they are simply ABOVE THE LAW and know that there are two levels of screening by lawyers, the Procurator Fiscal & the Crown Office, who they know will support them in their unlawful defence of your crooked lawyer and who will support them in their attack against you?
Welcome to the club of many thousands?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThey made us put the claim through our solicitor and all the paperwork for that cost us over 2 thousand pounds alone and the claim was for 45 thousand our solicitor said we would get his expenses back. It took three years for us to be told they were not paying out and the same day we received their decision our solicitor withdrew from acting and sent us a bill for another 3 thousand pounds threatening to take legal action if we did not pay him.Have still not paid and he is still threatening and the Law Society will not answer our letters so this is not a guarantee fund at all it is fraud as you said and no one wants to listen or hear about it just so our first solicitor goes on working and now our second solicitor is chasing is for more money even though he said the last time there was nothing more to owe him.All liars at the Law Society and the guarantee fund anyone who has been through it will tell you the same it is a horrible experience.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Yes they are radical evil and this is standard practice. They do this all of the time, I have every sympathy with you and any client who has suffered at the hands of what amounts to legalized theft, legalized mafia. They threaten you with legal action because they know you will not get legal representation. They are a bad lot.
1 December 2013 16:37
--------–--------------------------
'Standard Practice'
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete“A large proportion of questionnaires were not sent directly to claimants. Just think how horrified the Law Society would be with a E Bay type feedback system for clients to use. Yes ask the victims never the perpetrators.
2 December 2013 10:09
--------------------------------------
This is why the Law Society of Scotland were 'allowed' to 'cook-the-books' ......
The responses would have been:
Client Victim A : 'The Law Society of Scotland lied to me'
Client Victim B : 'My crooked Scottish lawyer stole my money from me and when I reported this to the Law Society they asked me not to report it to the police that they 'should be allowed to deal with my lawyer in-house' '
Client Victim C : 'My crooked Scottish lawyer stole from me and when I reported this to the Law Society of Scotland I found out that they knew my lawyer was a longstanding crook and then the Law Society of Scotland did nothing about it'
Client Victim D : 'Despite reporting my crooked Scottish lawyer to the Law Society of Scotland by recorded delivery mail, the Law Society of Scotland denied receiving my letter and after I challenged them about this they served me with an unacceptable service policy letter and document to say that I was an unreasonable 'complainer' and that therefore they did not need to reply to me in future'
Client Victim E : I reported my crooked Scottish lawyer to the Law Society of Scotland and they promised me that they would take action.'
'Imagine my surprise when I found out that this crook had gone on to swindle others and that the Law Society of Scotland had done precisely nothing to stop this ongoing crime'
Client Victim F : The person at the Law Society of Scotland who took my phonecall referred to me, to the rest of her colleagues, as a bastard.'
'Apparently her mute button was ineffective or that she did not press it properly'
Client Victim G : 'My crooked Scottish lawyer robbed me blind and the case went before the Law Society's SSDT'
'The hearing was a sham, where they came up with the most bizarre hypothetical excuses to explain why my crooked Scottish lawyer might have stolen my money'
'It ended up with them saying that instead of stealing my money that he had simply "BORROWED IT WITHOUT CONSENT"
'On hearing this I collapsed in my chair and then came to sometime later after they had all left the building'
And on and on and on and on and on......
Past 10,000 of the same and on and on and on...........
Do the Law Society of Scotland pay a sum of money to the Scottish Government, Crown Office or police to make them and their lawyer members above the law or do they just rely on blackmailing those in power?
ReplyDeleteShould the Scottish Government insist on a name change for the Law Society of Scotland to the Lawless Society of Scotland to best reflect the true criminality of the organisation?
ReplyDeleteI do wish people would pay more attention to your blog and all the excellent reports you have written about how to deal with the legal profession in Scotland, case reports you have published and what happens when the complaints system falls apart.
ReplyDeleteIf people did take more notice and used your work to save themselves time money and the inevitable grief I am sure change in regulation would happen much faster than I have seen in all my years up to now.
A long time fan and former employee of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhen are the police going to come to the aid of the People of Scotland and arrest the criminals within the Law Society of Scotland
Err....guess who acts as an insurer for Police Chiefs in Scotland (and elsewhere).....the name begins with the letter 'M'.
Just imagine what it would be like if your bank went bust and you had no money left - this is exactly what it is like trying to claim from this Guarantee fund.I should know because I have been going through a 5 year claim against the Guarantee fund and I know there is little hope of ever recovering the money meant for a house purchase my solicitor took for himself and lied about it ever since.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteJust imagine what it would be like if your bank went bust and you had no money left - this is exactly what it is like trying to claim from this Guarantee fund.I should know because I have been going through a 5 year claim against the Guarantee fund and I know there is little hope of ever recovering the money meant for a house purchase my solicitor took for himself and lied about it ever since.
4 December 2013 19:19
/////////////////////////////////////////
The Law Society of Scotland's Guarantee Fund is a sick joke and a total fraud?
All that it is designed to do is to humiliate the Client Victim and rub their faces in the dirt, just when they are at their most vulnerable?
A truly sick and evil regime?
I hope the former SLCC person who commented earlier will come forward and give a no holds barred account of the goings on within the Law Society of Scotland's clone and maybe help explain just why after all these years we are still being hoodwinked with claims of regulation of lawyers and these useless compensation schemes that never pay out..
ReplyDeleteIs it true that the Law Society of Scotland looked to form a pact with other crime families in Scotland recently but were rejected as the Scottish crime families retained some self-respect and would not stoop so low?
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that, when I went to a Scottish lawyer recently, he insisted that I produce a recent bank statement before he would represent me?
ReplyDeleteIs this for proof of residency, in which case surely a utility bill should have sufficed?
Or was it so he could see how much money I owned so that he could drain the whole lot from my account?
Does the DOI Team know the average % of a Scottish lawyers salary is made by foul means?
ReplyDeleteEg If their average billing hour is £150 per hour, given that many Scottish lawyers double and triple bill their Clients and that vast sums of money are stolen from SLAB then it's safe to say that around between £110 to £120 is made by foul means, giving a percentage of 77% made by foul means?
This would mean that the true average worth of a Scottish lawyer is around £35 per hour, which although many would argue is way over-the-top, it is probably about right?
Given that a Scottish lawyer works around 5 hours per day, this would mean £175 per day and for a five day week £875 and £35,000 a year!
As I say, many would declare that if the average worth of a Scottish lawyer was £35,000 a year they would say this was ridiculously high compared to the standard of service and skill that they show?
#Anonymous @ 3 December 2013 19:03
ReplyDeleteIf you want to get in touch please do via email or through other channels.
#Anonymous @ 5 December 2013 12:39
The figures for fraudulent income are actually much higher per solicitor investigated (either by the media or the Law Society & SLCC) if you count legal aid fraud and an almost habitual serial theft per client...
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI hope the former SLCC person who commented earlier will come forward and give a no holds barred account of the goings on within the Law Society of Scotland's clone and maybe help explain just why after all these years we are still being hoodwinked with claims of regulation of lawyers and these useless compensation schemes that never pay out..
4 December 2013 22:38
//////////////////////////////////////////
I totally agree.
Time to spill the beans and put this dying sham of an organisation finally out of its misery.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhen are the police going to come to the aid of the People of Scotland and arrest the criminals within the Law Society of Scotland
Err....guess who acts as an insurer for Police Chiefs in Scotland (and elsewhere).....the name begins with the letter 'M'.
4 December 2013 17:13
??????????????????????
Does this mean Scotland is effectively a protected police state, where the PTB can attack whoever they see fit at any time and that they can also take any action they please if it suits their nefarious ends?
This would certainly explain the Lockerbie Kangaroo Court Scandal?
I know for a fact a solicitor who was made a sheriff not too long ago had many complaints made against him during his time in a local law firm and also was accused of stealing money from clients accounts and no one got any compensation in return,have printed out a copy of this and handed it to one of those affected hope they get in touch and you can do a write up because this lawyer now a sheriff is in the news quoted about things in the courts
ReplyDeleteMaybe we need some name changes to reflect the reality the Scottish Public are faced with?
ReplyDeleteLaw Society of Scotland....to.....Subverted Law Society of Scotland?
Guarantee Fund.......to......Not Guaranteed Fund?
SSDT......to.......Scottish Solicitors Get Out Of Jail Free Tribunal?
SLCC.......to.........Scottish Lawyers Cannot be Caught?
Philip Yelland, Director of Regulation........to.......Director of Letting Crooked Lawyers Off Scot-Free?
The only thing guaranteed about the Law Society of Scotland's Guarantee Fund is that it is guaranteed NOT to pay out.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI know for a fact a solicitor who was made a sheriff not too long ago had many complaints made against him during his time in a local law firm and also was accused of stealing money from clients accounts and no one got any compensation in return,have printed out a copy of this and handed it to one of those affected hope they get in touch and you can do a write up because this lawyer now a sheriff is in the news quoted about things in the courts
7 December 2013 19:06
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Today's Scottish Sheriffs are only yesterday's crooked Scottish back-slapping lawyers
If the Law Society of Scotland's Guarantee Fund was fit for purpose it would have the annual turnover of a small African country?
ReplyDeleteThe ghouls at the Law Society of Scotland and the SLCC seem to feed off of people's grief and misery?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, I am a solicitor and one thing I do not enjoy is constantly having to pay high premiums into the SSGF to pay for the Law Society's habit of covering up for the worst elements of our profession.
===========================================
The Law Society bureaucracy was set up with the clear aim in mind of protecting lawyers, and it is utterly impossible for me to trust any lawyer. The client is like a pawn in power terms but the opposition have a full board of pawns, rooks, bishops, castles, king and queen. All working together to protect each other, and destroy. That is many clients experience of dealing with Scottish lawyers, in a football match between lawyers and clients the Law Society would break the client teams legs.
28 November 2013 17:41
??????????????????????
Here is an interesting question that the lawyer will only too well know the answer to.....
Q. Who makes the most frequent and largest claims to the Law Society of Scotland's Guarantee Fund and is routinely paid out?
A. The Law Society of Scotland of course?
Where did you think the money comes from to pay SSDT lawyer fines and SLCC compensation?
You didn't think it was the rotten scoundrel crooked Scottish lawyers did you?
They pay NOTHING?
It all comes from the Law Society of Scotland and they get it from the Guarantee Fund?
So, remember when you complain about your crooked Scottish lawyer to the SLCC, this is the first 'filter' designed to try to dispose of your valid complaint?
Then, when the Law Society get trusted to deal with your complaint, you find that all of the more serious parts of your complaint are struck-out and they say that this decision has been 'backed-up' by their 'Sifting Panel'?
This Law Society 'Sifting Panel' is an overt criminal tool to further cripple your case against your rotten crooked Scottish lawyer, with the intention of letting their crooked member off Scot-Free?
But you get beyond this and the Law Society send in their Fiscal to prosecute before the SSDT?
The Fiscal's job is to act in the best interests of the Law Society and their member, NOT IN YOUR INTERESTS?
Then, even after all this and after the SSDT panel themselves are 'briefed' ahead of time to what result the Law Society of Scotland want.....
You eventually get closure, where your rotten crooked Scottish lawyer is fined £5,000 and you get zero compensation.
Did the rotten criminal Scottish lawyer pay up?
Did they HELL.......The Law Society of Scotland paid the fine for him by 'dipping their big sausage-like-gravy-dripping-fingers' into the Guarantee Fund pot to come to their member's rescue and pay their fine?
Now you see the real use of the Guarantee Fund?
And if this was not bad enough, the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal keep this a secret from the Scottish People because the reality is that the whole SSDT process is thus a sick pantomime (oh yes it IS) being acted out in front of the only member of the audience.....You, the Client VICTIM?
How twisted is that?
The Law Society hate clients, simple as that although they would vociferously deny it. Money and Lawyers protected fanatically.
ReplyDeleteToo strong to publish? It is fact.
The Law Society of Scotland operate a finely tuned operation through their SLCC AND SSDT in order to give the lightest touch against their lawyer member, whilst hammering you into the ground in the process?
ReplyDeleteThe Law Society of Scotland have been ignoring their principal duty under the Solicitor (Scotland) Act 1980, which is to protect the Scottish Public from their members and they have been laughing at the Client victims for years?
The Law Society of Scotland behave like the maniac patient?
ReplyDeleteFull of spite and hatred towards the Clients who do not allow them to cover-up for the crookedness of their member Scottish lawyers?
So hateful are they that they forced the SLCC to bend to their Will and end up doing their dirty work for them, with the Law Society now looking as they are entirely innocent and remote from the process, when the truth is the exact opposite?
How long will it be for certain members of staff of the Law Society of Scotland to be arrested for their role in criminal conduct?
ReplyDeleteIt's about time the police raided their offices and took over their computers to gather evidence so that they can be prosecuted
ReplyDeleteWhy is Scottish Justice said to be like the Scarlet Pimpernel?
ReplyDelete'They seek it here
They seek it there
They seek it bloody everywhere
Does it exist?
Does it Hell
That dammed illusive Pimpernel (Scottish Justice)'
One Scottish Lawyer to another Scottish lawyer
ReplyDeleteTorquil: Crawford, with Christmas on approach do you double or trlple Bill your Clients?
Crawford: Good question my dear Torquil. Why of course I quadruple Bill my Clients at this time of year?
Torquil: That is most honourable of you old chap to send your Client's discounted fees for this the season of good cheer?
We should congratulate and backslap ourselves for upholding the honourable conduct and high esteem that we Scottish lawyers see ourselves as having?
After the poor Client victim was robbed of all of their money by their crooked Scottish lawyer, with absolutely nothing to show for it, they reported what had happened to their Governing Body the Law Society of Scotland?
ReplyDeleteSuffice to say that the Law Society of Scotland took all of the now literally poor Client victim's information including original paperwork, saying that they should leave it with them as they have a long history of 'fixing' things?
Many years later, after the Law Society of Scotland had swept the criminality of their rotten Scottish lawyer under the proverbial carpet, thereby allowing the dodgy lawyer to continue his campaign of crime against other poor unfortunate souls, aided and abetted by the Law Society of Scotland, the poor Client victim returned to the Law Society of Scotland to ask them WHY? they allowed this crime to continue and for others to be damaged?
The answer came back with a sickly smug smile, because we can get away with it?
The poor dejected, depressed and humiliated Cient victim then turned to the only person in the community who would definitely do something about this?
The Big Man?
The Big Man says, 'right son, this is how it is. Either you put a Complaint in to the SLCC or I will sort them oot but if I do I'll have your leg taken off at the hip and one of your kidneys'?
Thanks Big Man, here's a hacksaw?
What is the point of a Scottish lawyer, would we not all be better off as a Community if they were outlawed?
ReplyDeleteThanks for one's marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it,
ReplyDeleteyou may be a great author.I will make certain to bookmark your blog and will often come back at some point.
I want to encourage one to continue your great writing, have a nice afternoon!