Saturday, September 24, 2016

INSPECT YOUR ROGUE: Check your solicitors’ record in England, but not in Scotland - UK Solicitors Regulation Authority ‘years ahead’ of pro-lawyer Scots legal watchdogs

Check the regulatory history of your lawyer, not for Scotland. FAR REMOVED from the haven of corrupt and dodgy law firms which shape the landscape of Scotland’s greedy, overbearing legal services market, clients of lawyers in England & Wales have the opportunity to check any solicitor’s record – before shelling out tens of thousands of pounds to a hard working lawyer – or a lazy crook.

The Check your solicitor’s record service – operated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) allows anyone to find out if a solicitor or law firm operating in England & Wales has regulatory decisions made against them in relation to complaints of ripping off clients or providing poor legal services to UK consumers.

However, no such service is on offer in Scotland, due to lobbying from the powerful, shady clique of the Law Society of Scotland and other Scots legal vested interests – who are determined to maintain anonymity of corrupt and incompetent legal practitioners north of the border.

And, instead of providing consumers with a verifiable means of checking up on Scottish solicitors and law firms, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) publish only a selection of heavily edited and censored descriptions of cases which pass through the anti-consumer revolving doors of the Law Society-controlled pro-lawyer regulator.

Diary of Injustice recently reported on how the Scottish legal complaints regulator avoids identifying corrupt and dodgy lawyers within determination decisions – which are only published after being approved by members of the Law Society of Scotland : FROM ROGUES TO RICHES: SLCC refuse to identify corrupt solicitors in case findings.

Admittedly, the service on offer from the SRA in England & Wales does have some drawbacks - for example, not all regulatory decisions are published, and there are time limits to their publication scheme.

However, the facility is a huge advantage over what prospective and existing clients of Scottish solicitors face in efforts to find an honest lawyer north of the border – which some have likened to entering into a game of Russian Roulette with a six barrelled shotgun.

Recent regulation decisions made by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in relation to law firms and solicitors operating in England and Wales can be found here Recent Decisions - Solicitors Regulation Authority

A helpful guide on how to use the SRA’s solicitor regulation search service lists the following tips:

You can use our solicitor record check search function to have a look at regulatory decisions that we have made against regulated individuals and firms.

You can search decisions by the name of the solicitor, firm, or other regulated individual, SRA ID number (also known as their roll number) date the decision was made, or type of decision.

You can also view a list of recently-published decisions.

To search for decisions about an individual or firm, enter their name and/or ID number in the search fields. To narrow your search, choose an outcome type and/or specify a date range.

To see all closures (also known as "interventions") during May 2009, for example, leave name and ID fields blank, choose outcome type "closure" and specify the date range 1 May 2009 to 30 May 2009.

Only the most recent published decision against any firm will be displayed. To view a list of all published decisions against an individual made within the past three years (decisions are removed after three years), you will have to go into the record.

To check whether a law firm is regulated by us, use our Law firm search. To check whether an individual is regulated by us, use the Law Society's Find a solicitor search.

We aim to ensure decisions we publish are accurate and up to date. However, this website does not offer a complete picture of an individual's or firm's regulatory record. For example, it is possible that, since publication, a firm has ceased to practice or a solicitor is no longer on the roll of solicitors. Most published decisions are removed from our website three years from the date they were published.

We have published a large number of Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) findings, dating from early 2005 to 1 July 2011.

We do not publish findings made by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal; these are published by the Tribunal itself.

Please note that the Tribunal publishes findings resulting in a strike off, indefinite suspension or revocation of authorisation of a firm indefinitely. Decisions to suspend for a fixed period remain on its website for the duration of the suspension or three years (whichever is the greater). All other decisions remain on its website for three years. If you are unable to find a decision on the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal website please contact Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority began publishing some decisions in January 2008 – the same year the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission was created by the Scottish Government.

In comparison, since the SLCC came into being in 2008, the Scots legal services regulator has not identified one solicitor in any complaint investigated by the Law Society controlled quango – leading to a significant imbalance in the rights of Scots consumers to find out just how crooked their lawyer really is.

And, more often than not, the same Scottish law firms and same solicitors are subject of similar complaints in relation to professional misconduct, negligence, dishonesty, unashamed theft of client funds and some of the worst excesses which in any other arena would rate as criminal behaviour.

Yet, no one in Scotland is able to find out the regulatory history of their solicitor. No one. Unless by chance, clients who find themselves in the position of having to make a complaint against their solicitor decide to publicise their case and name the lawyers concerned.

A recent media investigation into the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission recently revealed most of the SLCC’s key staff and investigators are in-fact families, friends & business associates of solicitors, reported here: 'Independent' Scots legal watchdog consists of solicitors’ husbands, wives, sons, daughters, cousins, friends, & employers.

Previous media investigations, reports and coverage of issues relating to the SLCC can be found here: Scottish Legal Complaints Commission - A history of pro-lawyer regulation.

19 comments:

  1. Even if such a service were offered in Scotland how could it be trusted given what you have revealed about the SLCC and Law Society.

    Using a solicitor?Best assume the worst and they are lying to your face.Dont get too surprised when you end up being ripped off like everyone else.

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  2. most lawyers ARE lazy crooks anyway!

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  3. Yes it does have flaws as I know of a decision against my own solicitor not published will be onto sra during the week to find out why

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  4. Not likely to work in Scotland and in any case I do not trust records kept by professional bodies who have their own end in making decisions public or not.

    Does anyone actually trust a lawyer who trained for years as a born liar to be honest about their career and who they did or did not rip off?

    I thought I had heard it all living in England about devious lawyers but I must say your Scottish lot sound even worse a real pack of thieves.

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  5. What is the excuse for not having this check your lawyer service in Scotland?

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  6. I am in England and I didn't know until now this existed!

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  7. Yes there is no complaints system in Scotland. Not everyone is equal before the law. Documents redacted, corrupt policing institutions such as the SSDT and Law Society, SLCC, and a corrupt Scottish Parliament. Yes the lawyers control everything by hiding everything with the full approval of our dear MSP's. Utter filth all of them.

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  8. Lawyers know the truth and hide it by a corrupt system called self regulation which means strangulation for the lawyers client. They grind people down and are utterly ruthless evil people. They taught me never to trust any lawyer again. When you sit across the desk facing your lawyer you are looking at your worst enemy, whether you realize it or not.

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  9. Anonymous Anonymous said...

    What is the excuse for not having this check your lawyer service in Scotland?
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    They don't need to provide an excuse because they run the show.

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  10. They want obedient clients who are dumb enough, or desperate enough to trust them. And they are so twisted and unreasonable they think clients should not get angry when they have been ripped off. In truth I believe lawyers who steal clients money believe they are right in doing so. And the Law Society and all these crooked professional institutions of domination, believe they are right in covering everything up. Wisen up people they are the scum of the earth. They are liars, thieves, and cheats who are free to do what they want. Clients are dominated lawyers are free. That is the reality.

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  11. I don't trust any professional union and my distrust is so strong I would never make a complaint to them. A pointless exercise. They are just bureaucratic masks to cover up their corrupt ways. You cannot check what your lawyer has been up to because they are all thieving criminals.

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  12. Double standards writ large. As David Cameron repeatedly stated in reference to others, "if they have got nothing to hide they have got nothing to fear".

    As usual Which magazine and others allegedly interested in defending consumer rights are deafeningly silent on this and the other excellent reports in which you highlight matters of significant public interest.

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  13. "clients of lawyers in England & Wales have the opportunity to check any solicitor’s record – before shelling out tens of thousands of pounds to a hard working lawyer – or a lazy crook."

    lol I love how you balanced it out!

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  14. The Law Society hide the truth and if the public knew how ruthless and evil they are lawyers would be extinct. The truth is that there is no complaints system in Scotland, you can complain but you will get nowhere. The Law Society hide this truth with the approval of the Scottish Parliament's MSP's. There is no greater clandestine power than bureaucracy.

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  15. needle in a haystack chance of finding an honest lawyer and we all know it

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  16. Anonymous said...

    needle in a haystack chance of finding an honest lawyer and we all know it
    27 September 2016 at 11:14
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    Yes no chance either of a client getting fair treatment from the Law Society which is like Orwell's Ministry of Truth in 1984 who rewrite history for Big Brother and the Party so history ceases to be history and becomes propaganda. Every lawyer reports back to the (Big Brother Law Society) what clients are complaining about they are all one corrupt unit. I think they have a room 101 where they bury all client complaints.

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  17. seen this? not much good calling for reforms if Stevenson wont even name crooked lawyers!

    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/reform-call-for-unfit-lawyers-l06zs07wj

    Reform call for 'unfit' lawyers
    Mark Macaskill

    THE system for investigating potentially corrupt or incompetent lawyers is in dire need of reform, according to the head of a watchdog who described the existing legal landscape as "madness" and "unfit for purpose".

    Neil Stevenson, the chief executive of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) said an urgent overhaul is needed amid evidence that complaints against lawyers have risen 12% in the past year.

    Stevenson said low-level complaints against lawyers can take years to be resolved — causing frustration for clients — and that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being wasted by a bureaucratic system that is "costly, complex and slow". He warns that complaints can involve four different statutory bodies, all ultimately paid for by consumers.

    "We are not seeking to criticise any organisation or the many people who make the current system work as best it can, but regulation and complaints arrangements have grown piecemeal over the last century, and are desperately in need of reform," he said.

    "We want to see stronger rules to ensure the payment of compensation awarded to clients when things go wrong and priority areas tackled like property transactions which appear to generate several millions pounds' worth of complaints and indemnity payments every year."

    More than 1,000 complaints are raised against lawyers in Scotland every year. Many involve disputes over property and Stevenson estimates that "failures" in the conveyancing market cost more than £10m per year.

    He describes the "merrygo-round" that is often triggered when a complaint is made against a solicitor.

    "We investigate, try to settle, and determine the case. The professional body separately investigates, then maybe reports to a fiscal for a view, a committee considers it again, then the fiscal prosecutes at the discipline tribunal but on behalf of the professional body. Meantime, the unhappy consumer raises a handling complaint. Then the professional body investigate, but in the meantime the unhappy solicitor appeals the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) decision and it's off we all go on a jolly holiday to the Court of Session."

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  18. Stevenson ufff try writing to him as a complainant having to deal with his SLCC colleagues and see what kind of a reply you get I guarantee you nothing will be done and your complaint to the SLCC will be buried

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  19. He describes the "merrygo-round" that is often triggered when a complaint is made against a solicitor.

    "We investigate, try to settle, and determine the case. The professional body separately investigates, then maybe reports to a fiscal for a view, a committee considers it again, then the fiscal prosecutes at the discipline tribunal but on behalf of the professional body. Meantime, the unhappy consumer raises a handling complaint. Then the professional body investigate, but in the meantime the unhappy solicitor appeals the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) decision and it's off we all go on a jolly holiday to the Court of Session."
    27 September 2016 at 19:50

    So if I read this correctly Neil Stevenson of the SLCC describes the Court of Session as a jolly holiday for disgruntled solicitors and a merry go round for the SLCC who caused the upset in the first place.

    One wonders what the inner house will make of his cheeky rant!

    FYI This seems to be the ruling https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/search-judgments/judgment?id=1d0c1da7-8980-69d2-b500-ff0000d74aa7

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