Tribunal & regulators fail to protect public from crooked lawyers. A PARADE of recent cases before the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal (SSDT), involving solicitors who previously appeared before the tribunal on numerous similar complaints, only to be put back into profession with a light fine or slap on the wrist, confirm the current system of self regulation of Scotland’s legal profession is failing to protect the public, consumers of legal services and established clients of law firms.
Last month, the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal met to consider seven complaints lodged by the Council of the Law Society of Scotland against solicitor Alistair George Kay, who previously appeared before the SSDT in 2007 on a number of complaints and was found guilty of Professional Misconduct, fined £1000 and censured.
In the latest hearing, the Tribunal considered an “extensive catalogue of behaviour” including “two cases of a complete failure to respond to Law Society correspondence and statutory notices, a failure to respond to correspondence to Master Policy insurers, a failure to respond to correspondence from another firm of solicitors, a failure to pay the Respondent’s insurance excess, a failure to keep proper accounting records for a period of some three years, false declarations in five accounts certificates, and a failure by the Respondent to complete the appropriate paper work to allow a new executor to be appointed which led to the necessity of a court action being raised to allow the executry to be properly dealt with.”
The tribunals findings state the respondent (Alistair Kay) “had clearly been involved in dishonesty. The false declarations made in five accounts certificates were deliberate and considered acts of dishonesty carried out over a period of two years.”
A now familiar and recurring tale of how solicitors treat their clients, how law firms fraudulently manage clients finances and law firms accounts, emerges in further excerpts of the SSDT’s report which stated “The Respondent’s conduct was an ongoing course of conduct that covered a period in excess of four years.The Respondent’s conduct clearly presented a danger to the public, a clear example of that being the effect of his conduct on the executry of Ms A.The Respondent’s conduct was extremely likely to seriously damage the reputation of the legal profession. His complete failure to co-operate with his professional body could be seriously detrimental to the public trust in solicitors.
The way the Respondent had failed to respond to these matters as they each arose demonstrated both a lack of remorse and insight into the consequences of his conduct. The Respondent’s conduct clearly demonstrated that he was not a fit person to be a solicitor. His misconduct was directed towards his own professional body, his colleagues, the Master Policy insurers, and most seriously his own clients.
The Tribunal considered that there were two particular aggravating factors to the Respondent’s case which caused it a great deal of concern. The first was the Respondent’s willingness to resort to dishonesty to try to cover his misconduct, by making false declarations in five separate accounts certificates. The second was the apparent complete lack of care or concern on the part of the Respondent for his own clients as particularly demonstrated in his behaviour in relation to the executry of Ms A, resulting in particularly difficult consequences for that executry. The Respondent has also failed to take any part in the Tribunal proceedings.
As a result of the complaints, Kay was struck off the roll of solicitors, reflected in the decision which stated :
The Tribunal having considered the amended Complaints at the instance of the Council of the Law Society of Scotland against Alistair George Kay, Solicitor, 73 Bruntland Court, Portlethen, Aberdeen; Direct that Orders be issued under Section 53C(2) of the Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1980;
Find the Respondent guilty of Professional Misconduct in respect of his repeated failure to respond timeously, openly and accurately to reasonable enquiries made of him, and statutory notices served upon him by the Law Society; his breach of Rule 6 of the Solicitors (Scotland) Professional Indemnity Insurance Rules 2005;
his failure to respond timeously, openly and accurately to reasonable enquiries made of him by the Master policy insurers;
his breach of Rules 4, 8, 9 & 10 of the Solicitors (Scotland) Accounts Etc Rules 2001;
his false declarations made in five separate accounts certificates;
his failure to sign and return the application for confirmation and other papers sent to him by Messrs Andersonbain & Company and his failure to respond timeously to reasonable enquiries made of him by Messrs Andersonbain & Company; Order that the name of the Respondent be struck off the Roll of Solicitors in Scotland
Commenting on the tribunal's findings, a legal insider said the SSDT and the Law Society could and should have stopped Kay much earlier.
A similar tale of missed opportunities and bungled regulation emerges from the discipline tribunal’s findings in the case of Steven Angus Anderson, formerly of Messrs Andersons, Solicitors & Notaries, 2 Hillkirk Street Lane, Springburn, Glasgow. Anderson, who appeared at the SSDT in September of this year in relation to a complaint filed in 2011 by the Law Society, was also struck off after a catalogue of failures emerged in the SSDT’s blistering 87 page report, available here :
After consideration of the evidence, the tribunal’s decision found Anderson guilty of multiple failures including breaches of legal aid regulation.
The decision stated : The Tribunal having considered the Complaint at the instance of the Council of the Law Society of Scotland against Steven Angus Anderson, Solicitor, formerly of Messrs Andersons, Solicitors & Notaries, 2 Hillkirk Street Lane, Springburn, Glasgow ;
Find the Respondent Guilty of professional misconduct in respect of his failure to respond to correspondence from another solicitor, his failure to implement a mandate, his failure to respond to correspondence from and statutory notices served upon him by the Complainers; his obtaining or attempting to obtain payment from the Scottish Legal Aid Board by persistent breaches of the Legal Aid Regulations, Code of Conduct and Relative Guidance and Otherwise and in particular:
(i) by making multiple and / or repetitive grants of legal advice and assistance;
(ii) by charging or attempting to charge the Scottish Legal Aid Board other than for work actually and necessarily done;
(iii) by holding unnecessary meetings with clients which inflated fees;
(iv) by acting or accepting instructions to act unprofessionally, giving inappropriate advice and doing work under the Legal Advice and Assistance Scheme where the value of the subject matter rendered it inappropriate to do so having regard to the terms of Regulation 17(1) of the Legal Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 1996, or where the client claimed to have means that placed him beyond the scope of the Advice and Assistance Scheme;
(v) by granting legal advice and assistance to persons already in receipt of Legal Aid for the relevant subject matter contrary to the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1996 Section 7(2); and
(vi) by submitting accounts twice in respect of single pieces of work; Order that the name of the Respondent be struck off the Roll of Solicitors in Scotland;
Anderson, a Glasgow based solicitor had previously appeared before the tribunal on two separate occasions, once in 1999 where complaints were thrown out, and again in 2008 where the tribunal found Anderson guilty of Professional Misconduct in respect of his failure to respond to correspondence and statutory notices from the Law Society, but let him continue working as a solicitor.
Clearly, much of the detail contained in the tribunal’s reports in relation to the above solicitors, will be all too familiar to clients and regular readers who have been forced to file complaints regarding similar poor conduct by their solicitors.
Time and again, particularly throughout the last twenty years, the same serious issues of lawyers deceiving their clients, taking the legal aid board for a ride, solicitors fiddling their own accounts, embezzlement, negligence, dishonesty, fraud, etc … crop up in case after case of complaints made by clients against their solicitors.
As things currently stand, this trend will continue as there are increasing numbers of solicitors and others in the legal profession who appear to have little incentive to be honest, and certainly do not fear the current, discredited system of self regulation where the old boys club of the Law Society of Scotland, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal do their best to protect their colleagues in arms.
Add to that, a courts system headed by vested interests with an unhealthy opposition to transparency, those same vested interests who are too busy flying around the globe at taxpayers expense, increasing their undeclared earnings, connections & personal wealth by using connections with big name law firms who use the regulatory system to dodge complaints and ruin clients, you have the perfect recipe for the situation the Scottish legal profession now finds itself in – akin to groups of sharks on the hunt for a quick buck, some valuable trinkets left on a client’s mantelpiece, and a few nice properties once owned by deceased clients … and not one single criminal charge or investigation to worry about.
I don't suppose that 'joe public' would be allowed to lodge a complaint with the SSDT?
ReplyDeleteFirst they have to contend with the travesty that is self 'regulation'.
And as you report, not a single CRIMINAL prosecution by police.
Double standards anyone?
The self regulatory system was set up for one purpose, recycling crooked lawyers hence the reality is they are all crooked. I would not accept legal help if it was for free, note well lawyers, I repudiate you all.
ReplyDeleteClients there is no complaints system. As Fanon wrote “Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are
presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new
evidence 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, Black Skin, White Masks
They will tell you lawyers are honest, their core belief.
A Legal Mafia run Scotland, ruthless, evil to their boots with the politicians bending over to protect them. The next time you are in court ask yourself what do the public know about the lawyers, sheriffs and high court judges? Just what they want you to know, nothing. To understand fully what they are you have to be left without Police protection, without your MSP fighting for you and with their farcical complaints system that has recycled so many bent lawyers it is prudent to believe the sheriffs and high court judges who came from the same stock are thoroughly corrupt. Legal rights and access to justice in Scotland are always conditional. Ask a lawyer to sue another lawyer and you will become a leper.
ReplyDeleteIf regulation really worked, there would be no lawyers in Scotland because they are all bent. They leave an invisible trail of human destruction in their wake.
ReplyDeleteEverywhere I went for justice I was repudiated, as all clients eventually learn, there is no protection for the victims of this mafia. There is no complaints system and that is fact.
If anyone is still doing business with these lawyers or this Law Society thing they must need their heads examined!
ReplyDeleteLaw Society of Scotland, Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal, self regulation................no empathy for clients, you are their bread and butter and then if you complain you are an outcast. Lawyers are Psychopaths.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you added in the judges at the end because this caps the pyramid of lawyers in charge of their own and using the system to fatten their wallets.
ReplyDeletebtw cant help laughing at the 1980s style ssdt website tucked away in a dusty corner of the web.Meant to be of course so no one can find anything out.
Reputations, they are all the same, that is where there so called regulation has got them, all crooks, I would gladly become a cadaver before I would trust a lawyer filth.
ReplyDeleteThe old boys club have their membership in the so called free press too. If they were as honest as they claim to be why are their lawyer's filtering out comments on the online newspapers. Truth will hurt THEM.
ReplyDeleteI have become comfortably numb where lawyers are concerned in that my anger has subsided but I will never trust another one. Trust is impossible. Don't want to go through the hell again of being without rights, never.
ReplyDeleteI always check in DOI for the latest, keep up the good work. You guys are the only people I trust.
Quite simply the Law Society of Scotland are a thinly disguised criminal organisation?
ReplyDeleteFor years they have been saving their member lawyers from jail and using their SSDT to hand out trivial sanctions to allow them to continue their campaign of carnage against the Scottish Public, all so that they can continue to charge criminal fees against their powerless Client victims?
The only interest they have in the Client is their bank balance?
This case is proof positive that the SSDT are a bunch of crooks and are there simply to follow the Law Society's Instructions?
How many scores of Client victims has this crooked Scottish lawyer left in his wake and how many of them have been compensated by the Law Society of Scotland?
Possibly hundreds of Client victims with zero of them being compensated?
What is more, the £1000 fine charged against this crook by the SSDT would have been paid by the Law Society of Scotland after they made a claim on their Guarantee Fund?
Criminals who are above the law?
What about how the Law Society of Scotland where they routinely collude with their SLCC in order to get rid of valid complaints against their crooked membership?
ReplyDeleteSo why no criminal charges for these lawyers?there seems plenty going on in these reports for the Police to investigate.Also the legal aid claims why no criminal charges here?if it were a client they would be prosecuted straight away with SLAB demanding action in the courts!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIf regulation really worked, there would be no lawyers in Scotland because they are all bent. They leave an invisible trail of human destruction in their wake.
Everywhere I went for justice I was repudiated, as all clients eventually learn, there is no protection for the victims of this mafia. There is no complaints system and that is fact.
13 December 2013 22:40
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek
The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission IS the Law Society of Scotland?
And not even thinly disguised?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI have become comfortably numb where lawyers are concerned in that my anger has subsided but I will never trust another one. Trust is impossible. Don't want to go through the hell again of being without rights, never.
I always check in DOI for the latest, keep up the good work. You guys are the only people I trust.
14 December 2013 00:56
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Scotland is the only rogue State on the planet where you can go to a lawyer to seek help regarding your Human Rights, only for you to end up with ZERO Human Rights and trapped into their system where they will completely empty your bank account whilst giving you precisely nothing in return?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteSo why no criminal charges for these lawyers?there seems plenty going on in these reports for the Police to investigate.Also the legal aid claims why no criminal charges here?if it were a client they would be prosecuted straight away with SLAB demanding action in the courts!
14 December 2013 15:23
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
The only truth is that they are all allowed to be above-the-law in Scotland?
Is it true that there is a hit-list of clients on a Law Society white board, where they routinely involve themselves in unlawful conduct to build pressure upon them so that they are forced to give up the case against their crooked Scottish lawyer, or until they commit suicide?
ReplyDeleteAnd only then are they 'rubbed-out'?
It must be remembered that under the SLCC Rules, nothing has changed with respect to the Regulation of Scottish lawyers because Conduct Complaints are still carried out by the Law Society of Scotland?
ReplyDeleteTherefore, there has been no improvement and the Law Society of Scotland are still being allowed to defeat the ends of justice and keep their member crooked lawyers out of jail?
Scottish Lawyers view the SLAB as one big blank check-book and view their Clients as £ signs who exist only to enrich them?
ReplyDeleteThey view the Law Society of Scotland as a big 'get-out-of-jail-free-card' and the Police as a bunch of plebs who have no control over them?
And we wonder why this system is in such a mess and how everyone views the Law Society of Scotland as a criminal organisation?
The Law Society has legalized lawyer criminality, simple as that. Fraud is legal in the world of self regulation, which means self reward and recycling crooked lawyers. Like trying to catch fish with massive holes in the net.
ReplyDeleteThe Law Society segregates their lawyers from their crimes against clients, that is what self regulation is.
Are you aware that the Law Society of Scotland's Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal have ZERO power to enforce their Decisions?
ReplyDeletei.e. The Law Society of Scotland forbid them from enforcing payment from their crooked lawyers?
Therefore, when the SSDT apply Sanctions on the crooked Scottish lawyer or fine that lawyer, they have no say whatsoever in ensuring that their Legal Decisions are complied with?
e.g. Say the SSDT fine a lawyer a £1000 for stealing a fortune from their Client?
The crooked lawyer does not pay the fine to the SSDT and indeed the SSDT have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER if that crooked Scottish lawyer has paid this fine according to law and or whether the crooked Scottish lawyer is in default or has committed a contempt offence for refusing to pay-up?
The same is true for a Sanction Decision they make against a crooked Scottish lawyer?
i.e. Say the SSDT Restrict the crooked Scottish lawyer's Practising Certificate, that they are unfit to Practice and for 5 years they can only work as a legal assistant, where they must have their employer supervising their work for 5 years?
The SSDT have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA, whether or not the crooked Scottish lawyer is complying with their Legal Decision?
Thereby, the SSDT is not a proper Regulatory body because they are unable to confirm whether or not ANY of their Decisions they have made over the years have been complied with?
Bizarrely, even when the same crooked Scottish lawyers come before them multiple times, it is NOT IN THEIR REMIT to seek answers as to how the hell this is possible (if their previous sanctions had been complied with)?
This means the only person/body with an interest in ensuring that their crooked Scottish lawyer members obey the Legal Decisions of the SSDT is the Law Society themselves?
So, the Law Society of Scotland's Regulatory System is designed to reduce your Heads of Complaint to as little as they can get away with, including their bogus Sifting Panel (which is just a tool for getting rid of your valid complaints - usually the most serious instances of criminality), then they appoint their own Fiscal to prosecute their member crooked Scottish lawyer and then any Decision reached by the SSDT is only enforced by the Law Society of Scotland and whether they can 'bother' making their member crooked Scottish lawyer's comply with the law?
So, you are COMPLETELY WASTING YOUR TIME with anything to do with the Law Society of Scotland because they have zero interest in complying with the law and zero interest in holding their crooked members to account?
This is yet another incidence where there is NO INCENTIVE for the Law Society of Scotland and their crooked Scottish lawyer members to comply with the law, as there is no accountability and no consequences for them breaking the law?
Imagine, you believe that after all you have been put through with the Law Society of Scotland's corrupt Regulation System that eventually that at least their is some Sanction found against them to ensure that they cannot perpetrate crime against others, only for them to COMPLETELY IGNORE THE SSDT LEGAL DECISION and your crooked Scottish lawyer and the Law Society of Scotland both agree that they should just continue to fill their boots as normal and to just to ignore the SSDT Findings?
Looks like this SSDT is so bad at its given task there should be a new way of prosecuting lawyers in open court rather than at some posh lawyer run club.
ReplyDeleteJust think how many thousands of lawyers over 20 years have escaped with a slap on the wrist or a few pence as a fine when they should really be up on criminal charges and sent to jail as the criminals they really are.
Seems that only when a lawyer is diddling Marsh and the Law Society that anything happens.
ReplyDeleteDouble standards written all over it.
The legal system in Scotland is now in a complete and total mess, It would now be impossible to recruit a jury that are not aware of what is going on.(1) No declaring of interests of Sheriffs or Judges ect. (2)Ample evidence a complaints system that protects crooked lawyers (3)Solicitors that have no hesitation in covering up criminal actions of other lawyers (4)The Law Society apparently have no intentions of reporting criminal actions of lawyers to the police!!!! Yes A complete MESS
ReplyDeleteThomas Hobbes wrote 'when two men want the same thing they can become enemies'. But when a victim of a crooked lawyer wants that lawyer sued for damages the victim and the whole lawyer faction become enemies. The Police don't investigate lawyers they are not allowed to. Forget their complaints system, it was all set up to shaft you and dig you into the dirt afterwards. My advise is simple, as far as is practicable and that is not always easy, avoid them at all costs, they are evil ruthless self protecting thieves.
ReplyDeleteOrganised crime gang where they control the Police to their benefit. All those clients they want silenced are right.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteLooks like this SSDT is so bad at its given task there should be a new way of prosecuting lawyers in open court rather than at some posh lawyer run club.
Just think how many thousands of lawyers over 20 years have escaped with a slap on the wrist or a few pence as a fine when they should really be up on criminal charges and sent to jail as the criminals they really are.
15 December 2013 17:47
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Actually, the SLCC (otherwise known as the Law Society of Scotland) are extremely efficient and ruthless at disposing of hundreds of valid Client complaints for no other reason than they can get away with it because that's the way the SLCC was designed?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteSeems that only when a lawyer is diddling Marsh and the Law Society that anything happens.
Double standards written all over it.
15 December 2013 20:12
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As if to exemplify the point, the Law Society of Scotland is the only drunk on power organisation that can withdraw a Scottish solicitors Practising Certificate (without which the Scottish lawyer cannot work) for something as trivial as not responding timeously to a Law Society of Scotland letter?
This is what can happen if, as a Scottish lawyer, you refuse to follow their corrupt practices?
It is incredible that the SSDT (the Law Society of Scotland in a not very convincing disguise) are completely and utterly ignorant to wether any of their Legal Decisions are complied with?
ReplyDeleteThis is because regardless of what the SSDT Decide in a quasi Court, the Law Society of Scotland then decide whether or not they wish to comply and whether or not their crooked Scottish lawyer member will comply?
This sham of an organisation has NOT GOT A CLUE whether or not the fines that they are handing out or compensation they are awarding is being paid by the crooked Scottish lawyer or indeed the Law Society of Scotland?
Potentially even more seriously, the SSDT have absolutely no CONCERN OR INTEREST if those crooked Scottish lawyers who they pass a Sanction against to restrict their role to a qualified assistant, who's work has to be supervised by a qualified lawyer (because they have demonstrated that they are not competent or cannot be trusted) have been allowed to continue AS IF NOTHING HAS CHANGED by the Law Society of Scotland in defiance of the SSDT, for the only two reasons that they allow their crooked member to get back to high-fee-charging the Scottish Public as soon as possible and to continue to cause further damage to an unsuspecting Public?
Thereby, the SSDT is a sick sham and is an utterly useless and pointless body whose only function is to give the Law Society of Scotland the exact Decision that they Instruct them to give?
This explains why multiple crooked Scottish lawyers keep on coming before the SSDT again and again and again because they are not really serving any SSDT Sanction at all?
The SSDT's only role therefore is to make the Scottish Public think that they are actually doing something, whereas all Client Victims (and the evidence shows this) know that the SSDT do exactly what the Law Society of Scotland Instruct them to do?
Otherwise, the SSDT would be joining up these schoolboy-error-dots and recognising that the Law Society of Scotland are completely ignoring their Legal Decisions in an effort to allow their sick members to continue to cause further carnage and damage and at the same time filling their boots with cash at the Scottish Public's expense?
Word on the street is that all of the good Scottish lawyers that are left are considering forming a new professional organisation to rival the Law Society of Scotland to put an end to the overt criminality and give the People of Scotland a good honest service?
ReplyDeleteThey have both been thinking about this for some time but were worried that the Law Society of Scotland would withdraw their Practising Certificates before they got their new organisation off the ground?
Good luck lads. Go for it?
Clearly the SSDT have not been carrying out their statutory function, if the same crooked lawyers keep on coming back to them over and over again?
ReplyDeleteHave the Law Society of Scotland's SSDT come up with a completely new concept of corrupt regulation?
'SCOTTISH BOOMERANG REGULATION'?
After an SSDT Sanction is served on a crooked Scottish lawyer, they just keep coming back-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack?
Law Society of Scotland: I don't know what you are worried about? We have arranged for the SSDT to hand out a soft Sanction against you?
ReplyDeleteCrooked Scottish lawyer: That is terrible. I cannot do without my brand new Mercedes every year. I'll no longer be able to fiddle the SLAB and over-charge my Cients with impunity?
Law Society of Scotland: Don't worry. This SSDT Decision is just to humiliate your Client Victim and is just to feed the press the usual line to make them think we are doing a good job. We'll slot you in with another firm of Solicitors and you will be back to your wicked ways before you can say Boomerang?
The inescapable truth is that the Law Society of Scotland still have a death-like-grip on the 'regulation' of Scottish lawyers?
ReplyDeleteStatistics show that the Law Society of Scotland are wilfully and arrogantly continuing to defy the law to deliberately keep known crooked lawyers out of jail and instead of taking action to rid the profession of the 'bad element' they seem Hell-bent on allowing them to continue to cause untold damage, carnage and pain?
The lengths the Law Society of Scotland go out of their way to attack the clients of these crooked Scottish lawyers, shows just how malevolent and criminal they are?
The consequences of the Law Society of Scotland's policy of keeping known criminals fully employed and billing fully over the years has had a steady and continuous dileterious effect on the standards and morals of Scottish lawyers, after all the message the Law Society of Scotland have been sending out to their members for decades is, do what you like, break the law with impunity as you are protected from prosecution and continue to hammer your clients into the ground?
Should we then be surprised to find the present situation where Scottish lawyers are synonymous with cheats, crooks and scoundrels of the highest order?