2014 Annual report of legal regulator reveals compensation figures up. COMPENSATION totalling over £365,000 has been awarded to clients of rogue solicitors in the past year, says the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) in its 2014 annual report. The legal regulator for Scotland’s notoriously poor legal services sector also revealed it had received 1024 new complaints against dodgy lawyers since last year’s annual report.
The latest report from the ‘independent’ SLCC – which is funded by a levy on solicitors and has a high composition of former Law Society staff & ex employees of law firms among its own staff - also revealed there has been a 35% rise in mediation uptake in the past year.
However, over the past year reports have emerged of individuals who made complicated complaints against their solicitors involving substantial financial sums being cajoled, and in some circumstances, forced into the mediation scenario – which ran for months and ended up with not quite the success portrayed at the outset.
Among other figures from the report, 125 complaints were upheld, 247 were "resolved", these figures together representing 65% of eligible complaints.
Dual investigations carried out by the SLCC & Law Society of Scotland – where conduct & service issues combine in complaints came in for a critical finding in the report. The SLCC said “While the percentage of service only complaints has remained stable over the past three years, there has been a fall in the number of complaints that have been categorised as conduct-only but a rise in the number of hybrid complaints, which contain both service and conduct elements.”
“This trend can have a significant impact on the parties to the complaint, as hybrid complaints have to undergo two separate investigations (i.e. by the SLCC and the relevant professional organisation), which can lead to timescales being doubled, and in those cases which result in prosecutions to the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal, tripled. Since the 2007 Act requires the SLCC and RPOs to seek to avoid duplication in investigations, the current average time taken to investigate hybrid complaints is of real concern to us, and this is something that we and the RPOs are looking to address in the next operational year.”
SLCC 2014 Annual Report Launching the Annual Report, the SLCC’s CEO, Matthew Vickers, commented “The vast majority of the legal profession in Scotland provide great service to the public, but where things do go wrong the SLCC takes firm and decisive action to put things right.” Conveyancing, family law and executries, wills and trusts are the three biggest areas of complaint.
Mr Vickers points out that that cases touching on home and family life can have a huge impact on people’s lives. “We’re ready to use the full extent of our powers to enforce our decisions and make sure awards are paid out where they are due. 65% of the complaints about service which we accept are resolved or upheld”. “But the Annual Report also highlights the growing importance of informal techniques such as the SLCC’s free and confidential mediation service in finding solutions to complaints. Consequently, the SLCC’s process has become quicker and more efficient and complaint handling times have halved since 2012."
"The legal services sector is worth over £1 billion to the Scottish economy and the report notes recent research which indicates that law firms can increase their profitability by around 3% through better complaint handling. The report also sets out the work of the SLCC on training and guidance for the profession.”
Mr Vickers added “We’ve published guidance for the public on using legal services and on conveyancing in particular as part of our efforts to prevent complaints from happening in the first place.”
While the news of better handling of complaints against the legal profession & rogue solicitors is welcome, it has taken the SLCC six years and five Chief Executives - which include Rosemary Agnew – currently the Scottish Information Commissioner – to get to a state where it pays out to financially ruined victims of “crooked lawyers”, however the total compensation awarded to members of the public who find themselves at the mercy of their once trusted solicitor are “little more than a scratch on the surface” – according to one person who has already been through the complaints process.
Highlighting the £1 billion figure from the statement issued by the SLCC’s current Chief Executive, Matthew Vickers, legal insiders remain of the view the financial sums involved in fraud carried out by Scottish solicitors each year are in the millions – with clients still struggling to recover 100% of their losses from the SLCC or the unsympathetic Court of Session – where judges often have undeclared links & financial relationships with some of the very same law firms accused of ripping off their clients.
Readers have since pointed out striking similarities between statements given by Lorna Jack, the Law Society of Scotland Chief Executive and Matthew Vickers, CEO of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission in relating to their claims of the legal services sector being worth “over £1 billion to the Scottish economy” – a line spun by vested legal interests and some elderly judges - each time there is any public criticism of the legal profession for its poor provision of legal services in Scotland, one sided, biased regulation, sky high legal fees and closed shop lawyer-only access to Scottish courts.
However, less keen are the legal profession or the SLCC and even the Scottish Legal Aid Board to talk about or admit to the £1 billion pound plus taxpayer funded subsidy handed by the Scottish Government in the form of legal aid to Scottish lawyers & law firms since the Financial crash of 2008 – revealed by Diary of Injustice here: BANK OF LEGAL AID: £1billion of public money thrown at ‘struggling’ lawyers since 2008 financial crash.
Diary of Injustice would like to remind people who contact the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission to ensure when they file their complaint against their solicitor, they also state as clearly as possible they are seeking full compensation for their losses and nullification of any fees their solicitor is claiming for or has already billed for - after providing clients with poor or inadequate legal services.
If clients have been ripped off – as in embezzlement by a solicitor, or money going missing, property titles or other losses including items from executries or the estates of deceased family members & so on, this should be made clear to the SLCC including the financial damage caused by the loss of such material.
30 comments:
£365K?Well this is just great.
The value of a half decent house awarded to cover up rip offs after 1000+ complaints in the past year.
Not much when put in perspective eh
"We aim to improve trust in legal services in Scotland"
haha right Mr Vickers.
No chance.Just ask Phillip Yelland and the gang at the Law Society for a detailed run down on how they have treated people for all these years.
More myths spun by the slcc who kept us waiting for over a year before telling us the complaint was time barred.
Meanwhile same solicitor ripped off another old dear on our street and now she's dead his For Sale sign is up on her property and family found out he looted her house of a piano and all the silver cutlery.
Cops dont want anything to do with it so have told them to go to the papers.
They will just rip off someone else to pay for the fines and then the Law Society will cover it up as they always do.
I like your advice at the end a lot better than the bullshit in this SLCC report!
I dont believe much of what we are being told by the Law Society so why should anyone believe the same words coming out of a quango paid for by the Law Society.
How do we know anyone actually go their money and how much of it??
all these figures flying around by the lawyers and not really any proof of what is going on not very convincing is it!
Pennies compared to what lawyers steal from their clients every year
Who cares?Everyone knows lawyers investigating lawyers is corrupt!and we know it thanks to you mostly!Get back to writing about the judges it is far more interesting because they are in charge in all of it!
Law Society spin machine at it again how well they do and no identification of anyone.
Who are all these crooked lawyers the slcc investigate then none are ever published and they go on to do it again and again..
All that effort yesterday by the SLCC to promote their dodgy report and the Cherbi blog destroys it with one post.
Is it really worth it Matt?
Just as useless as the Law Society I have complained about my solicitor who lost us over £42,000 and got nowhere.Have a pile of letters as proof if you want them.
It is hardly surprising no one believes the slcc report if you consider the fact the same people from the Law Society work at or for the slcc and there is little independence in a regulator paid for by the Law Society.
Good point in the earlier comment we should be told the names of these lawyers who are paying out the £365K and why otherwise other people are going to end up just another victim!
Why are the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission concealing the names of lawyers fined for complaints!
Anonymous said...
They will just rip off someone else to pay for the fines and then the Law Society will cover it up as they always do.
15 December 2014 at 22:19
My thoughts exactly
I would like to see an independent and objective report listing the precise areas of income allegedly generated by the Scottish legal profession - strange all we ever get is a sweeping generalization, which is by definition incomplete and therefore suspect.
What we do know, courtesy of the European Commission Report listed on DOI, is that Scottish lawyers have cost the Scottish taxpayer over £1 Billion pounds over recent years.
Value for money?....I think not.
Hey Peter dont feel you need to cover the SLCC any more - someone in the newsroom pointed out their press release yesterday and said "this is from the rogue regulator yeah?" and we had a laugh about them trying to write their own headlines.
You have done your job on the SLCC.Now get back to judicial interests like your readers are asking.Remember Angus MacDonald said in the parly you were brave for taking on the judges so you know what you should be writing about.
Why exactly is Mathew Vickers coming out with the £1 billion figure of legal services industry in Scotland?
He says in the quote "The legal services sector is worth over £1 billion to the Scottish economy and the report notes recent research which indicates that law firms can increase their profitability by around 3% through better complaint handling."
Sounds more like a pitch for business than something you'd expect to hear from a regulator begging us to believe it is independent of the Law Society.
Check this out.
Lorna Jack said the same almost word for word http://www.journalonline.co.uk/News/1012736.aspx
"Scotland as a place to do business and for our legal sector which contributes well over £1 billion to the Scottish economy every year"
SLCC independent?
You cant even come up with your own speeches Mr Vickers, Brackenridge, Dunion and all.
Kudos to the Diary of Injustice team once more.
Never mind writig for the newspapers, you should be editor of one! - circulation would gop through the roof!!!
@ 16 December 2014 at 11:39
Send in the documents by email and they will be considered for publication or further investigation.
@ 16 December 2014 at 12:35
Yes a good idea to identify the law firms fined by the SLCC ... although the regulator will say everything must be kept confidential etc and therefore lawyers who have already ruined people and been fined for it can go on to ruin other unsuspecting consumers ...
16 December 2014 at 19:48
Well spotted ... the article has been updated to take account of the similarities in the quotes given by the Law Society of Scotland CEO and the SLCC CEO.
This SLCC Report is just Law Society of Scotland propaganda and cannot be relied upon by sensible people.
The reason property,wills trusts etc are still the main targets of lawyers for a thieving spree is because the people making them are either too trusting or just too stupid and know nothing about how to organise their own affairs.Obviously any lawyer on the take is going to take full advantage of this and take what they want when they want and no one can do anything about it because they handle their own complaints.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/revenue-scotland-boss-faces-holyrood-questioning-1-3636469
Eleanor Emberson - wasnt she at the Scottish Court Service? now head of Revenue Scotland and facing questions from msps about tax collection
Anonymous said...
The reason property,wills trusts etc are still the main targets of lawyers for a thieving spree is because the people making them are either too trusting or just too stupid and know nothing about how to organise their own affairs.Obviously any lawyer on the take is going to take full advantage of this and take what they want when they want and no one can do anything about it because they handle their own complaints.
17 December 2014 at 09:53
Couldn't agree more. About time someone said this.I used to work for a sole practitioner and was amazed at the ignorance of clients.
All these people going around bragging about getting a sale item for 50p are clueless when they enter a solicitor's office. Eager to hand over £5K for a form filling exercise and then they go into shock when actions of their solicitor are called into question/end up as a complaint!
Don't expect any help from the SLCC or Law Society because you can see where they are coming from a mile off.
Is it any wonder the legal services industry is worth a billion to Scotland when there are armies of idiots out there so willing to walk into a solicitors' office, tell them their most inner secrets and flash the money then shock horror get ripped off!
The older the person the more ignorant they are! One unmarried former nurse who kept visiting the office I used to work at and sent annual Christmas cards & chocolates to my boss was so stuck up and so religious you'd think she already had a ticket to heaven but she knew sod all about her own legal interests,left her money to charity and yes, my old boss helped himself to it.The charity knew or at least suspected and said nothing.
Could recall hundreds of similar cases. The problem lies more with the kind of people using solicitors than solicitors themselves. A thief is always going to steal.When a fool and their money meet a thief well you don't need to be a professor to work out what happens next!
The judgement of Scottish Judges simply cannot be relied upon?
I've heard that all of the carpets at the offices of the SLCC are covered in large mounds like the Himalayas Putting Green at St. Andrews?
Apparently, due to them lifting the corners and sweeping all and sundry underneath the carpet?
It would be interesting and worthwhile if the SLCC were to publish details of what fraction of a percent does this give-back relate to the cash stolen by their Scottish lawyers?
0.1%?
0.01%?
0.001%?
Or significantly lower?
MG said...
Anonymous said...
The reason property,wills trusts etc are still the main targets of lawyers for a thieving spree is because the people making them are either too trusting or just too stupid and know nothing about how to organise their own affairs.Obviously any lawyer on the take is going to take full advantage of this and take what they want when they want and no one can do anything about it because they handle their own complaints.
17 December 2014 at 09:53
Couldn't agree more. About time someone said this.I used to work for a sole practitioner and was amazed at the ignorance of clients.
All these people going around bragging about getting a sale item for 50p are clueless when they enter a solicitor's office. Eager to hand over £5K for a form filling exercise and then they go into shock when actions of their solicitor are called into question/end up as a complaint!
Don't expect any help from the SLCC or Law Society because you can see where they are coming from a mile off.
Is it any wonder the legal services industry is worth a billion to Scotland when there are armies of idiots out there so willing to walk into a solicitors' office, tell them their most inner secrets and flash the money then shock horror get ripped off!
The older the person the more ignorant they are! One unmarried former nurse who kept visiting the office I used to work at and sent annual Christmas cards & chocolates to my boss was so stuck up and so religious you'd think she already had a ticket to heaven but she knew sod all about her own legal interests,left her money to charity and yes, my old boss helped himself to it.The charity knew or at least suspected and said nothing.
Could recall hundreds of similar cases. The problem lies more with the kind of people using solicitors than solicitors themselves. A thief is always going to steal.When a fool and their money meet a thief well you don't need to be a professor to work out what happens next!
17 December 2014 at 14:03
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The problem is not the Client and can never be the Client.
The very least a Client should expect from their lawyer is for their lawyer not to take all of their money as if it was their own?
Your observations would be silly if they weren't a true reflection of the state the Law Society of Scotland has engineered for Scottish lawyers.
Above the law and thinking that they own your bank balance.
What is the point in them going on about high compensation when they dont even name the lawyers,just shows you how rotten the slcc really is!
The problem is not the Client and can never be the Client.
The very least a Client should expect from their lawyer is for their lawyer not to take all of their money as if it was their own?
Your observations would be silly if they weren't a true reflection of the state the Law Society of Scotland has engineered for Scottish lawyers.
Above the law and thinking that they own your bank balance.
18 December 2014 at 03:27
Whatever.The problem stops at clients.Clients who run to lawyers expect the earth and actions the law cannot deliver.Clients who run to lawyers and think they are in the right.Clients who like to brag about going to lawyers and having lawyers ready to pounce when given an instruction.I have seen it thousands of times.If you engage a solicitor expect to pay for it.If you do your own work and stay away from lawyers you will save some money and a whole lot of heartache.No getting away from the fact there are plenty of the litigious type who always want to blame someone else for their own shortcomings.Lawyers make a meal from those kind and laugh when a complaint comes in.
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