Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Three years, £7m & its own victim trail, anti-client Scottish Legal Complaints Commission still refer most complaints about lawyers to Law Society

slcc_logoScottish Legal Complaints Commission prefers sending complaints against solicitors back to Law Society. CLIENTS OF SCOTTISH SOLICITORS are less protected against ‘crooked lawyers’ now than they were before the ‘independent’ Scottish Legal Complaints Commission came into existence, say campaigners & consumer groups today as it emerged the bitter anti-client SLCC, which itself has now formed its own trail of victims, is still handing over complaints to the notoriously corrupt Law Society of Scotland in a policy which could alarmingly extend for yet another 10 years, depending on when legal business was first instructed by clients to their solicitors..

Philip YellandLaw Society Regulation Chief Philip Yelland still receives most complaints about crooked lawyers. Huge numbers of consumers with complaints against their solicitors which involve legal work or matters instructed to solicitors before 1st October 2008 are still being told by the SLCC they will pass their complaint back to the Law Society, which was so corrupt in its handling of complaints against lawyers, it sparked numerous legislative attempts to reform the legal profession’s system of self-regulation into what was hoped would be a cleaner model in the SLCC. However victims of rogue lawyers are being treated just as poorly by the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission as they were under the Law Society’s complaints handling regime, headed by its Director of Regulation, Philip Yelland who has reigned over consumer complaints against crooked lawyers for twenty years.

SLCC 12 July 2010 REDACTEDAfter receiving millions of pounds from taxpayers, the SLCC’s letter informs clients their complaint will be dealt with by the Law Society. A letter from the SLCC, sampled out of many recently sent out to unsuspecting clients, in this instance to a member of the public who has made complaints against Perth Law firm Kippen Campbell, states : “Although the SLCC can investigate most complaints about the service received from a Scottish solicitor or advocate, it cannot under the provision in the 2007 Act, investigate complaints relating to business instructed before 1st October 2008. Nor can it become involved in complaints about a solicitor's or advocate's conduct before 1st October 2008. These complaints must be referred back to the Law Society of Scotland or the Faculty of Advocates to consider.”

SLCC members expenses SLCC Board members voted against investigating complaints before October 2008, while making huge expenses claims. The letter is quite an effort from the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission – after receiving £2 million of public funds and well over £6 million from the legal profession, yet after several years of its Board members paying themselves an average of £135K expenses per annum (some with several paid jobs on other quangos), and its staff on salaries of up to £1350 per week, the SLCC can only manage to inform the majority of Scots their complaints against their lawyers cannot be investigated by the ‘independent’ law complaints quango as their legal work began in a time the SLCC want to avoid regulating, guaranteeing the SLCC is not forced in to compromising situations where it may have to investigate complaints deliberately mishandled by the Law Society of Scotland.

An official from one of Scotland’s consumer organisations was asked for his reaction to the SLCC’s policy of passing complaints back to the Law Society. He attacked the terms of the SLCC’s ‘avoid the complaint letter’, branding it ‘an excuse to do nothing’, and condemned it as being ‘very anti-consumer and laden with untruths’.

He said : “The SLCC’s policy to exclude all legal business instructed by consumers prior to 1st October 2008 is a betrayal of the intentions of the LPLA Act, which is widely known to have come into being after a long campaign to secure a more level playing field for consumers with regards to regulation of the legal profession.”

He continued : “Consumers who are currently going through the long process of litigation stemming from legal issues arising from before October 2008 may well find in 5 or 10 years time, if they are put in a situation where they require to make a complaint about how their legal representatives handled their long running case, their complaint will still be handed back to the Law Society. This I am sure was not the intention of the LPLA Act, nor was it a situation envisaged by the many campaigners & consumer groups who helped bring the Act into being.”

A client who has complained to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and received a similar letter said he felt betrayed by the SLCC. He said : “Now that I’ve been told my complaint is going to the Law Society I know there is no chance of getting a proper investigation.They will cover it up like they always do.”

In the ORIGINAL VERSION of the Legal Profession & Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007, the legislation which created the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, laughably, to cure the ills of the Law Society of Scotland, there was no mention of the now infamous 1st October 2008 cut off for complaints relating to business instructed to a solicitor or advocate.

However, during 2008 when the SLCC and its Board Members were voting through its operational rules, one of the issues decided by its members was that the SLCC would not investigate complaints before 1st October 2008. I reported on this significant anti-consumer development during September 2008, here : Scottish Legal Complaints Commission that wont investigate complaints posts rules of no help to many victims of crooked lawyers

So, as you all see, the ‘independent’ regulator which was created by legislation to cure the prejudiced, anti-consumer practices of the Law Society of Scotland’s self regulation of complaints against solicitors, has itself become as anti-consumer & prejudiced as the organisation and the profession it was designed to clean up. The SLCC is nothing short of a failure in terms of raising the levels of consumer protection against poor legal services, and a very costly, bitter, anti-client failure at that.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hardly a surprise given that the majority of staff in the 'independent' SLCC are former Law Society employees, while the majority of the Board have past associations with it.

So much for the promised lay representation, time for Which to start complaining to the OFT and others - no point talking to MSPs.

Anonymous said...

How can one man be in charge of crooked lawyers for 20 years and get away with it ??

Anonymous said...

They sound like a right bunch and WHY are they getting £135K in expenses claims if all they do is send all the complaints back to the Law Society ????

Anonymous said...

What a profligate man MacAskill is. Cross your colleagues palms with silver for protecting lawyers. John Swinney should recoup this money now and shut this quango.

Anonymous said...

Complaining about a lawyer in Scotland is pointless.

People should split their assets if possible, do not trust these corrupt bastards.

Anonymous said...

Staggering salaries for those who protect crooked lawyers!

Anonymous said...

So really what your saying is that letter with the blacked out bits cost 7 million to produce!

If this is the case this SLCC should be closed up and the little heads in the picture made to pay back every cent they took from the public

Anonymous said...

Parasitic vermin, that is what lawyers are. These scum cannot be reasoned with, it is impossible. Public exposure by the dissidents is the only solution to this serious problem. I do not vote any more Peter, most MSP's support the Law Society.

Anonymous said...

The best in lawyer protection, the SLCC and Law Society. Corrupt bastards. One day they will meet their own Mr Moat.

Anonymous said...

So, as you all see, the ‘independent’ regulator which was created by legislation to cure the prejudiced, anti-consumer practices of the Law Society of Scotland’s self regulation of complaints against solicitors, has itself become as anti-consumer & prejudiced as the organisation and the profession it was designed to clean up.

TRUE PETER BUT ALSO PREJUDICED MSP's. IT WAS THEY WHO ALLOWED THE WATERING DOWN OF THE LPLA ACT. A CASE OF IF IT DOES NOT AFFECT THE MSP's THEY DO NOT CARE. VILE PEOPLE ALL OF THEM.

Anonymous said...

Is it really worth complaining to the SLCC if all they do is send it back to the Law Society ?

Anonymous said...

“Consumers who are currently going through the long process of litigation stemming from legal issues arising from before October 2008 may well find in 5 or 10 years time, if they are put in a situation where they require to make a complaint about how their legal representatives handled their long running case, their complaint will still be handed back to the Law Society. This I am sure was not the intention of the LPLA Act, nor was it a situation envisaged by the many campaigners & consumer groups who helped bring the Act into being.”

ONLY LAWYERS WIN, EVERY TIME. SO WHY SHOULD THEY TRY HARD FOR YOU?
LITIGATION IS A WASTE OF TIME FOR CLIENTS, A MONEY POT FOR LAWYERS. THINK ABOUT IT?

Anonymous said...

Lawyers are architects of injustice. I would like to gas them all.

Anonymous said...

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore has told the House of Commons that the decision to free the Lockerbie bomber from prison was made "in good faith".

If Mr MacAskill's lawyers or family were on Pan Am 103 Mr Megrahi would have died in prison. Another decision that does not affect the decision maker. Deny it MacAskill?

With all the corruption in the Scottish Judiciary (three judges no jury) at the trial perhaps they stitched Mr Megrahi up.

Anonymous said...

Hi Peter I have the same letter!
I think the SLCC are worse than the law Society now

Anonymous said...

after all the campaigning for years and this is the result it proves THEY ARE ALL CORRUPT

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

Is it really worth complaining to the SLCC if all they do is send it back to the Law Society ?
==================================
The SLCC is the Law Society, same mindset, different face. Mr MacAskill's client bashers.

Anonymous said...

I wonder why the solicitor was shot dead in the Cumbria shootings. Was he an innocent victim of the gunman or was the gunman a victim of the lawyer?

Tragic for all concerned.

Anonymous said...

The Law Society SLCC complaints seesaw, goes one way and then the next, but never the clients way. A bureaucracy which pass complaints both ways. Bureaucracies have one major problem, highlighting individual guilt.

All of these people have one focused goal. Whitewashing client complaints, MacAskill meant what he said that "Scotland owes a great debt to the legal profession". A mendacious minister protecting mendacious bureaucracies. This MacAskill, I wonder about his clients?

Anonymous said...

Scottish Parlaiment, MSP's are bigger crooks than MP's.

Anonymous said...

Scottish Parlaiment, MSP's are bigger crooks than MP's.

Anonymous said...

Surely there should be a full public inquiry into what the SLCC have been doing for the past 3 years,giving all who have contacted it a chance to speak out ?

Anonymous said...

Evil Law Society spawns equally evil SLCC.No wonder no one believs anything that comes out of our legal system now!