The statement by Scotland’s top judge came in Lord Carloway’s address to lawyers, judges and other legal vested interests in his recent Opening of the Legal Year 2023-2024 speech – where Carloway attacked plans to reform how lawyers regulate themselves in the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill which is currently at Stage 1 consideration a the Scottish Parliament.
In a jibe at the Scottish Government’s admittedly feeble plans to reform regulation of the Legal profession in Scotland, Lord Carloway claimed the reforms to lawyers looking after themselves in complaints regulation – “gives rise to serious constitutional concerns about the rule of law …”
Lord Carloway said: “The first is the Regulation of Legal Services. The senior judiciary recently responded to Parliament's call for views on the Bill. They were unanimous in the view that the Bill, as currently drafted, gives rise to serious constitutional concerns about the rule of law and the separation of powers. It is a threat to the independence of the legal profession and the judiciary. If the Bill is passed in its current form, Scotland will be viewed internationally as a country whose legal system is open to political interference. This will have serious adverse consequences.”
Scotland’s top judge went on to declare his unelected office of Lord President and his judiciary, should instead remain the ultimate regulator of rogue lawyers facing any complaint or question about their provision of legal services to clients.
Lord Carloway stated: “The rights of clients, who are the ultimate consumers of legal services, to obtain legal advice, must be protected from interference by the government. The only way to ensure that lawyers will be able to stand up for the individual, whether a person or an institution, against the government of the day, is for the Lord President, and the Court of Session, to remain as the ultimate regulator of the legal profession.”
Regulation of lawyers in Scotland is currently controlled by the Law Society of Scotland, Faculty of Advocates and a lawyer dominated Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC)
The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission is funded by client fees to solicitors and Advocates who then pay the complaints levy to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.
In Scotland, a decades old, repressive and at times highly vindictive regime of lawyers looking after themselves – has seen thousands of clients & consumers of legal services each year – ripped-off by their own solicitors with little or no recompense for the millions of pounds lost to legal services overcharging, theft, embezzlement & outright solicitor client fraud each year in Scotland’s legal services market.
In some of the most appalling cases of Scots lawyers found to have looted their clients assets - legal regulators have reacted to unwanted media coverage by using private briefings and turning newspapers and journalists against each other. In some well known cases, legal regulators encouraged articles against legal reforms, blocked publication of newspaper reports on identified lawyers & law firms, and personally went after ;law reform campaigners who seek nothing more than removing the self regulation element from regulation of legal services and legal representatives in Scotland.
However – despite the public protests of Lord Carloway and other ‘leaders’ of Scotland’s legal profession – including the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates who has also attacked the proposed legal reforms, the reality is the Scottish Government’s Regulation of Legal Services Bill falls far short of what is needed to quell Scots lawyers appetite for ripping off consumers and clients.
And unsurprisingly, according to legal and political sources - there are allegations much of the Scottish Government’s claimed solicitor regulation reform proposals are ‘deliberately deceptive’ and have already been negotiated away with legal interests and political partners in deals to water down what is currently in the bill.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an MSP who along with others is said to be facing de-selection by their own embittered party – informed journalists of private briefings and meetings between MSPs of all parties - and lawyers and legal regulators who are anxious to ensure much of the already watered down proposals in the reform of legal regulation bill are eliminated or that the entire bill is stalled or axed completely.
No references to any of these meetings appear to exist in entries of the Holyrood lobbying register but it has been established meetings did take place and lawyers who met MSPs appear to believe they succeeded in their lobbying aims, stating so in private lawyer-only social media chat groups.
You can read more about the Scottish Government’s Reform of Legal Services Bill here: Reform of Legal Services Bill - Scottish Parliament
This latest attempt by a Scottish Government and the pro-lawyer Scottish Parliament to reform regulation of lawyers is the third attempt since 2000 – where in 2001 – and amid bitter evidence sessions - Holyrood’s Justice Committee led by Christine Grahame threw out calls for reform of how lawyers cover up complaints for their own colleagues.
A second attempt by another of Holyrood’s Justice Committees in 2006 saw arm twisting from legal regulators to shelve much of the proposals in the Legal Profession & Legal Aid Bill, which became law in 2007 after multiple amendments lodged by MSPs, including Scottish Conservative MSPs on behalf of legal vested interests.
What became the LPLA Act 2007, which led to the formation of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission in 2008 – which in turn has led to some fifteen years and counting of disastrous complaints regulation by an overly false legal regulator which is in fact staffed and run by the same lawyers and vested legal interests who ran complaints at the Law Society of Scotland.
To make matters worse, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission later set into policy a system which intimidated clients who had already been ripped off by their solicitors – into signing Non Disclosure Agreements to conceal thousands of complaints against Scots multiple law firms over the last decade – with many law firms appearing week after week at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission to demand complainants sign more NDAs to conceal some of the worst and repetitive acts against clients which even the old Law Society of Scotland regime failed to keep away from public gaze.
And, it should be noted the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission has cost clients of Scottish solicitors around £40million pounds in complaints levies – paid for by law firms hiking client fees to meet their annual complaints levy.
Lord President Lord Carloway’s Legal Year address to lawyers, which takes the usual Judicial Office tone of launching threats against one piece of reform legislation, then absorbing another piece of legislation – the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill as a form of pro-justice system judicial PR and follow-the-money-supply-to-law-firms – is well worth a read.
It should be glaringly obvious to all the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill – more of which can be read here Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill - Scottish Parliament has only come about because Scotland’s judges, courts & lawyers have been mistreating and preying on victims of crime, abuse & countless other crimes for decades to the point the public and victims themselves demanded action – rather than the action coming willingly from the judiciary or legal profession who seem to believe they own the law.
Lord Carloway’s Opening of the Legal Year 2023-2024 speech can be downloaded here Lord Carloway - Opening of Legal Year Scotland 2023-24 with relevant content below:
I extend a special welcome to Lord Burnett of Maldon, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and thank him particularly for his work during his years in office in ensuring that Scotland's voice was heard on legal matters in the Halls of Westminster and elsewhere.
Law Reform: Regulation of Legal Services and Criminal Justice
Looking to what it is that might happen next, there are two Bills on which views are currently being sought. Each proposes a series of notable reforms to the justice system.
The first is the Regulation of Legal Services. The senior judiciary recently responded to Parliament's call for views on the Bill. They were unanimous in the view that the Bill, as currently drafted, gives rise to serious constitutional concerns about the rule of law and the separation of powers. It is a threat to the independence of the legal profession and the judiciary. If the Bill is passed in its current form, Scotland will be viewed internationally as a country whose legal system is open to political interference. This will have serious adverse consequences.
The rights of clients, who are the ultimate consumers of legal services, to obtain legal advice, must be protected from interference by the government. The only way to ensure that lawyers will be able to stand up for the individual, whether a person or an institution, against the government of the day, is for the Lord President, and the Court of Session, to remain as the ultimate regulator of the legal profession.
On a more encouraging note, the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill contains proposals for significant reform of the criminal justice system, many of which are based on the Lord Justice Clerk's Review. The judiciary welcome the reforms insofar as they aim to make giving evidence a less traumatic experience for witnesses, including the creation of a right to anonymity and to independent legal representation for complainers in relation to applications under the rape shield legislation, the establishment of a specialist sexual offences court and the abolition of the not proven verdict.
Overall, the judiciary believe the Bill proposes a number of measures which, in principle, represent improvements to the existing system.
The Criminal Courts: Recover, Renew, Transform
Following the build-up of criminal cases which have waited for a considerable period of time to go to trial as a result of lockdown, the court service began the Recover, Renew and Transform programme in September 2021.
The recovery aspect aimed to restore the courts to their pre-pandemic capacity. It involved recruiting more sheriffs and court staff and the setting up of more High Court and sheriff trial courts. Good progress has been made. The challenge now is an ever-increasing volume of indictments and complaints which libel sexual offences. In the face of this new volume of criminal business, we no longer expect to restore matters to the pre-pandemic position. We need to adjust our expectations and set a new reasonable baseline for the number of cases waiting to go to trial at any one time.
Our modelling predicts that the number of High Court cases waiting for trial will recover to a new reasonable baseline level by March 2025, and sheriff solemn trials by March 2026.
Prisoner escort services are causing those in custody to arrive at court late. This has an impact on the smooth operation of the criminal courts. We are looking to accelerate plans to move to virtual custodies. Pilots have already taken place. As I have said many times before, the need to bring those arrested before a court as soon as practicable, must remain a priority.
The purpose of renewal is to establish better ways of working which promote the resolution of cases at the earliest opportunity. The Summary Case Management pilot continues in Dundee, Hamilton and Paisley Sheriff Courts. It aims to reduce the number of hearings to those which are necessary, by encouraging early resolution through early disclosure. Early disclosure has allowed the Crown to take a more targeted approach to the citation of witnesses. There has been earlier resolution of proceedings brought in the pilot courts and a reduction in the number of witness citations being issued in those proceedings. Work is underway to roll the pilot out to Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Specialist online courts are being set up to deal with domestic abuse cases. The idea is to ensure that the complainer and the accused do not require to meet each other. This reduces potential trauma for complainers.
Juries continue to be balloted remotely, thus sparing the public the inconvenience of coming to court. Over the course of the past year, over 450 police and expert witnesses have given their evidence remotely in High Court trials.
A key component of transformation lies in the implementation of the recommendations of Lady Dorrian's Review. The court service has been making substantial progress in relation to those recommendations which do not require legislation. The creation of facilities to pre-record the evidence of children and vulnerable witnesses and the giving of evidence remotely is being accelerated. We now have designated facilities for commissions in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen.
Earlier this month, I visited the Bairns' Hoose. The Hoose is designed to feel like a family home. It is based on an international model first developed in Iceland, called the Barnahus, which brings together justice, health, social work and recovery support for children in one location. The Hoose is, in essence, a comfortable and safe space in which children can give evidence, receive medical care, take part in decisions about their protection and obtain support to recover from trauma.
The Hoose is the first of its kind in Scotland. The Barnahus model was first advocated for in early 2016, as part of SCTS's Evidence and Procedure Review. I am very pleased to see it implemented into the system, and I hope that we will see more of them developed in due course.
The Civil Courts: Technology and Transparency
On the civil side, there have been a number of notable technological improvements this year.
The importance of making the people's courts as accessible as possible cannot be understated. The advent of new technology means that we can implement new, more efficient and convenient ways to do this. In June, we officially launched Court of Session Live, a new streaming service for Inner House proceedings. I thank Lord Pentland, and his cross-departmental task force, for their hard work in getting this up and running.
Alongside Court of Session Live, we are publishing information about, and summaries of, upcoming appeals much earlier than we have ever done before. We hope that this will enable those who are interested in viewing proceedings, whether online or in person, to make plans to do so.
We launched the new and improved Civil Online portal in May and have significantly expanded the level of service which the portal offers. In Simple Procedure cases, court users can now raise and respond to actions through the portal.
We secured funding from the Scottish Government to start developing a new case management system for the Office of the Public Guardian. The new interface will provide a more accessible and broader range of online services to the public.
Many of our Tribunals are experiencing growth in the volume of business. The work of the Social Security Chamber is expected to increase significantly. The new Local Taxation Chamber has inherited over 40,000 cases from its predecessor, the Valuation Appeals Committee. We are working closely with the Government to ensure that sufficient resources are made available to support this. Reform of the Tribunal system generally also continues, with the further expansion of the General Regulatory Chamber's jurisdiction, and the potential transfer of the MHT into the First-tier Tribunal during 2024.
The court service are in discussions with the Faculty about the re-establishment of the practice of making justiciary and session papers available to the Advocates Library. This will enable advocates and, via the National Library, members of the public, to view them.
We are working hard to deliver these improvements, but, as ever, we can only do as much as resources allow. We will continue to do what we can within budgetary constraints. I ask only that the government continues to support us by providing us with sufficient funding to continue to deliver core services, as well as these improvements to the system.
Ends.
Earlier relevant coverage from this blog - of how the Legal Profession & Legal Aid Act (2007) was deliberately mangled by the Scottish Government, and Scottish Parliament – which allowed lawyers to continue to regulate themselves to the current date, can be found here: The Legal Profession & Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007
46 comments:
Belter of a report Peter you nail all the crooked lawyers and their lobbyists in one go
Far better than all the shit on bbc and the msm rags promoting the Law Society of Scotland
🥧 Lord of pies says all your pies belong to us 😂
All the fact and with all your previous work and evidence, unlike the constant lies from judges and lawyers ordering us to treat them with grace and favour they clearly do not deserve.
Why does the Scottish Parliament and MSPs always side with lawyers?
Because too many MSPs are lawyers and they control our democracy which Carloway claims is at risk if lawyers are not allowed to regulate lawyers.
This part right here in your article is very good and absolutely bang on
""This latest attempt by a Scottish Government and the pro-lawyer Scottish Parliament to reform regulation of lawyers is the third attempt since 2000 – where in 2001 – and amid bitter evidence sessions - Holyrood’s Justice Committee led by Christine Grahame threw out calls for reform of how lawyers cover up complaints for their own colleagues.
A second attempt by another of Holyrood’s Justice Committees in 2006 saw arm twisting from legal regulators to shelve much of the proposals in the Legal Profession & Legal Aid Bill, which became law in 2007 after multiple amendments lodged by MSPs, including Scottish Conservative MSPs on behalf of legal vested interests.
What became the LPLA Act 2007, which led to the formation of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission in 2008 – which in turn has led to some fifteen years and counting of disastrous complaints regulation by an overly false legal regulator which is in fact staffed and run by the same lawyers and vested legal interests who ran complaints at the Law Society of Scotland.
To make matters worse, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission later set into policy a system which intimidated clients who had already been ripped off by their solicitors – into signing Non Disclosure Agreements to conceal thousands of complaints against Scots multiple law firms over the last decade – with many law firms appearing week after week at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission to demand complainants sign more NDAs to conceal some of the worst and repetitive acts against clients which even the old Law Society of Scotland regime failed to keep away from public gaze.
And, it should be noted the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission has cost clients of Scottish solicitors around £40million pounds in complaints levies – paid for by law firms hiking client fees to meet their annual complaints levy.""
Judges have NO BUSINESS DICTATING TO ANYONE WHO CAN OR CANNOT INVESTIGATE CORRUPT LAWYERS BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW ALL THE JUDGES STILL ARE LAWYERS AND PART OF THE SAME LAWYER MAFIA PROTECTING LAWYERS
Scotland slowly became a judge ruled dictatorship and now they are telling us who we can and cannot complain about!
***In some of the most appalling cases of Scots lawyers found to have looted their clients assets - legal regulators have reacted to unwanted media coverage by using private briefings and turning newspapers and journalists against each other. In some well known cases, legal regulators encouraged articles against legal reforms, blocked publication of newspaper reports on identified lawyers & law firms, and personally went after ;law reform campaigners who seek nothing more than removing the self regulation element from regulation of legal services and legal representatives in Scotland.***
Translates to corrupt media and press infested with lawyers and judges telling us what to do how to live and to give all our money to lawyers.
Truly sick and fed up of corrupt Scotland under the Scottish National Party
The Solicitors Broadcasting Corporation are giving their lawyer friends and the judges even more air time to campaign against the reforms to complaints regulation
"Fears over reforms" what an absolute disgrace why do the corrupt money men always get headlines out saying "Fears over reforms" again and again
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66634324
Fears over reforms of legal regulation in Scotland
Lawyers and judges have claimed changes to how Scotland's legal profession is regulated could leave the justice system "open to political abuse".
Plans to reform how the profession is regulated would allow Scottish ministers to have more say over the running of the legal sector.
But senior legal figures have warned the move threatens the sector's long-held independence.
The Scottish government denied this and said it would improve accountability.
Regulation of Scotland's legal profession is currently done by a string of independent bodies, including the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates.
These bodies operate under the independent supervision of the Lord President, the country's most senior judge, currently Lord Carloway.
The Scottish government has introduced a new bill that would allow ministers to review the regulatory performance of these organisations, but also allow new bodies to become regulators.
Scottish ministers argue this will improve accountability and the transparency of decision making.
However, the legal community has issued strong condemnation of the proposals in evidence to Holyrood's Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice committee.
The Senators of the College of Justice, which represents judges in the Court of Session and the High Court, told MSPs: "These proposals are a threat to the independence of the legal profession and the judiciary.
"It is of critical constitutional importance that there is a legal profession which is willing and able to stand up for the citizen against the government of the day.
"If the bill is passed in its current form, Scotland will be viewed internationally as a country whose legal system is open to political abuse."
The Law Society of Scotland, which is the professional governing body for solicitors, said: "Of greatest concern to us is the desire of the Scottish government to be granted extensive and exceptional new powers of intervention over how legal professionals are regulated.
"These powers, which we have not been able to identify in any other western democracy, risk seriously undermining the rule of the law and the independence of Scotland's legal sector from the state."
The Faculty of Advocates added the "bill contains provisions giving the Scottish ministers very broad powers, not only in making regulations but also allowing interventions in some circumstances".
The Scottish government says the proposed changes are about modernising an outdated system and giving greater protections to the public.
The Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill has provisions to change the way in which complaints about legal services are handled, as well as making it an offence to use the title of "lawyer" with intent to deceive in connection with providing legal services.
A spokeswoman said they had "no intention of changing the vital importance of having an independent legal sector".
She added: "The promotion of an independent, strong and diverse legal profession is enshrined in the bill while providing for a modern regulatory framework to promote competition, innovation and improve the transparency and accountability of legal services regulation, taking into account public and consumer interests.
"We will continue to engage both consumer and legal stakeholders as this legislation proceeds through parliament."
The BBC is definitely acting as the news outlet for judges and lawyers to go on the attack against us all look at this! Absolutely shocking
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-59951437
Top judge hits out at proposal for new legal watchdog
Scotland's top judge and lawyers have issued a furious response to Scottish government proposals to reform how legal services are regulated.
Ministers are consulting on changes which could see a new regulatory body set up to oversee the legal sector.
Lord Carloway said the judiciary would "resist with all its strength" any attempt to interfere with its independence and the rule of law.
And lawyers said the plans were an "act of vandalism" and a "retrograde step".
The government said it would "carefully consider" views before coming to any decision or drafting legislation.
Its consultation paper said it had not yet taken a position on potential models of regulation, which were drawn up as part of an independent review.
Esther Roberton - a health chief who has formerly led NHS 24 and NHS Fife - was asked to chair a study of the regulation of legal services in 2017, in response to concerns that the existing system was "dated and no longer fit for purpose".
Her report said the current system was too complicated, particularly in terms of how complaints were handled, and made 40 recommendations about how legal services should be regulated.
It proposed an overhaul of the system with "a single independent regulator for all providers of legal services" at the top, reporting to MSPs.
In response, the government admitted that this proposal had "largely polarised the views of those in the legal and consumer landscape", and launched a consultation to build consensus where possible on the way forward.
The consultation paper set out three different possible models for a new oversight system, ranging from small "light touch" changes to Ms Roberton's suggestion of a new body.
However, Lord Carloway - who heads the judiciary as the lord president of the Court of Session - said the consultation "appears to have proceeded on the fundamentally flawed premise that the legal profession in Scotland regulates itself".
He stressed that this was "incorrect", saying the lord president regulates the system while being independent from government, parliament and those he regulates, while having ultimate control over some "limited self-regulation by the professional bodies".
His response to the consultation said that transferring regulatory powers to a separate body answerable to Holyrood would "create an unwarranted and unacceptable interference by the government and parliament with the judiciary".
He said this would amount to "an interference with the rule of law", adding: "The judiciary will resist with all its strength this, and any other attempt by government or parliament to remove the court's regulatory powers".
Lord Carloway's response was echoed by leading lawyers, including QC Roddy Dunlop, dean of the Faculty of Advocates, who described the plans as "an assault on the rule of law that must be resisted, root and branch, with tooth and claw".
The Faculty's own response to the consultation called the plans "an act of vandalism", adding that an independent judiciary was "fundamental to the operation of democracy in Scotland" and "cannot be sacrificed on the altar of perceived modernisation".
Skip twitter post by Roddy Dunlop QC
Meanwhile prominent defence lawyer Aamer Anwar said Lord Carloway's response was "a devastating indictment" of the proposals.
He said: "The government cannot keep producing box-ticking consultations without rhyme or reason, or any real fundamental understanding of a system they propose to scrap."
The extra part from the BBC which Google said I had to publish again
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-59951437
In its original response to the Roberton review, the government said it believed reform was required - but accepted there was "little consensus" on this or what should be done.
The consultation paper stressed that ministers were yet to "develop a position" on Ms Robertson's key recommendation that an independent regulator be established.
Community safety minister Ash Denham said the government was "open to further views on how the report's recommendations should be taken forward", and wanted to "capture the fullest range of views" on what level of reform was supported.
Following Lord Carloway's submission, a spokesperson said: "We thank the judiciary for their response to the consultation, which has generated a wide variety of opinions.
"Scotland has one of the best legal professions in the world - however improvements are needed to further support access to justice in modern Scotland. Ministers will carefully consider all the consultation responses and a report will be published in due course."
You guys need to sack all your judges and start again your legal system in Scotland is a joke as are the lawyers and judges working their ticket
You are sooo right about this Peter the judges believe they are ruling over us but they are really public servants and that's all.
The courts belong to the country not the judges or lawyers and this has to be cleaned out of old men controlling everything for their own vices and prices!
Keep up the good work PeterC!
Judges make these speeches because they can keep them out of the papers and tell whoever is writing it to write it their way.
Did you notice how Carloway slavers over how much business is coming into the Tribunals - taking money from people who are already fucked over in life and now having to pay lawyers to stand before tribunals for years to prove the truth over and over again.
And the Public Guardian thing is a Judicial Factor style racket taking incapacitated people's bank accounts assets and anything they can grab for fees.
Legalised looting
"We secured funding from the Scottish Government to start developing a new case management system for the Office of the Public Guardian. The new interface will provide a more accessible and broader range of online services to the public."
"Many of our Tribunals are experiencing growth in the volume of business. The work of the Social Security Chamber is expected to increase significantly. The new Local Taxation Chamber has inherited over 40,000 cases from its predecessor, the Valuation Appeals Committee. We are working closely with the Government to ensure that sufficient resources are made available to support this. Reform of the Tribunal system generally also continues, with the further expansion of the General Regulatory Chamber's jurisdiction, and the potential transfer of the MHT into the First-tier Tribunal during 2024."
There is a four letter word beginning with 'S' and Lord Carloway is full of it.
If memory serves me correctly three Scottish judges oversaw a trial in Holland concerning an irplane crash in Lockerbie - which, together with the outcome, was of course completely free of political interference..... or so we are told by the powers that be.
This is simply yet another excercise in defending the indefensible. Lord Carloway would have us believe that;
"The only way to ensure that lawyers will be able to stand up for the individual, whether a person or an institution, against the government of the day, is for the Lord President, and the Court of Session, to remain as the ultimate regulator of the legal profession.”
I recall an earlier report by you revealing the truth behind the bluster as told by a QC when he said that the Scottish courts "do not cut any slack to party litigants because of their status. In fact, in my experience, they generally enjoy cutting them off at the knees before doing so above the neck. If he goes alone he can forget about justice instructing the result!"
Lord Carloway's subsequent complaint regarding the comment was rejected as "totally without merit".
The judiciary free from political interference???? - JUST ASK MR JULIAN ASSANGE !!!!
I love your blog Peter it is the best website ever and free too!
and I know because the lawyers hate you so much and tried to do so many things to you and how the Law Society attacked you because all you publish is bang on.
Did you see what Dunlop said about you on Twitter he sounds very concerned anyone is able to read the truth about lawyers because as we see the papers are too scared to publish what lawyers are doing to people
Do you notice how silent all the newspapers went after you and the journalists you worked with stopped writing about the likes of John O'Donnell and crooked lawyers?
Well I hope you can keep up the blog posts and keep us all informed again as you did before.
Take care!
I forgot to ask are you still publishing your blog to Twitter?
Twitter is now such a mess I never sign in because all the content on my page was horrible and full of advertisements.
If not using Twitter how about using Threads and other services instead?
Welcome back Peter!
Note to Lord Carloway - SELF PRAISE IS NO RECOMMENDATION.
The fact your legal reforms to regulation caused Scotland's top judge to start screaming constitutional threats against the entire country solely because the long term work you undertook on self regulation is now mainstream and finally being acted upon is a wonderful credit to this blog and your determination over the years to see clients have rights against lawyers
Big shout out to Peter Cherbi for all the information you put in the public domain about the corruption in Scotland's legal profession and the judiciary.
You can tell the journalists are in with lawyers from the crap they write and the stories from the lawyer talking lots of shit and looking for business its sooooo obvious and when you call up the lawyer in the story they tell you to come in and they want you to sign a document saying you wont talk to anyone except them and they are now the owner of your claim so it was a waste of time reading the paper and going to the woman lawyer to be ripped off and when you try to contact the woman journalist who wrote the story they dont answer or tell you to fuck off on the phone my mum had a lot of grief from a lawyer after she read a Sunday paper about compo for a health thing and the woman lawyer in the story wanted to talk to her then ends up she gets a demand for over a thousand for 2 letters and a meeting and then told she will get nothing and she cant go to another lawyer what did the woman journalist do refused to talk to my mum did the crappy newspaper get money for writing the story yes and too many awards oh no I cant talk to you you are too small I am an award wining bullshit artist journalist I wont speak to your mum I dont know who the lawyer was in the story I wrote I cant remember the name not interest go away click
I seem to recall that Which magazine previously submitted a 'super-complaint' observing that regulation of lawyers by lawyers was not workable and was disadvantaging the Scottish Public.
Perhaps Lord Carloway should read it.
Spot on. Carloway must be fizzing to rant threats at everyone in his speeches is he always like this? I saw the clip of Carloway trying to argue with the Scottish parliament and what he said about not registering judges interests sounds like the same fear and anger in his legal year speech.
Anonymous said...
The fact your legal reforms to regulation caused Scotland's top judge to start screaming constitutional threats against the entire country solely because the long term work you undertook on self regulation is now mainstream and finally being acted upon is a wonderful credit to this blog and your determination over the years to see clients have rights against lawyers
Big shout out to Peter Cherbi for all the information you put in the public domain about the corruption in Scotland's legal profession and the judiciary.
2 November 2023 at 16:55
Avoid using lawyers in Scotland if you can and do not trust any judges as they are all lawyers too.
I ended up having a lot of difficult with my own lawyer after he asked to hold my property deeds and when I said no he began sending me bills for work he never did.
Luckily I began recording the lawyer at every meeting after I refused to give him my property deeds and when he threatened to make me bankrupt for about two thousand pounds for work he never did and was never instructed.
I told him I recorded all our meetings and intended to publish the files and that he better send me my file or I was going to the Police too so this ended his attempted fraud.He did what he did so easily and has probably done it before to other clients.
Impressive blogging and finally we read the truth about judges and their lawyers.
Carloway has a lot to hide to make you his number one target because of the complaints changes.
Reading your blog as I regularly do even when you are not writing I've always wondered how many people have died, been killed or murdered or deceased as a result of the actions of Scottish lawyers and the courts.
It cannot be one case of suicide reported in an SLCC study nearly 12 years ago there must be more so I asked a friend about this at Uni and he looked at figures of reports in the press and did some research on news where a lawyer ruined someone and they later died because of an illness probably caused by what the lawyer did and my friend said he thinks the number of deaths of ordinary people and clients and victims of crimes and even criminals associated with the legal profession and courts is well into the thousands in a similar way how the Benefits cuts murdered hundreds of thousands of people.
I read social media posts from many of the so-called 'famous' Scottish lawyers and they are without doubt a very very nasty evil set of people.I read how they attack everyone not just journalists and very nasty open threats on Facebook and other websites from Scottish lawyers to people they obviously dont want to be heard.
Anyway I haven't said anything wrong in my comment and I copied some of the threats postings I read from lawyers who appear in the news all the time I will send you some to look over and thank you for giving ordinary people a chance against these monsters.
Unfortunately it is not journalists who decided what appears in the press and what does not, it is Editors who in turn are beholding to owners.
The attempt to make complaints regulation and Peter Cherbi public enemies No1 all because the Law Society of Scotland and Colin Sutherland also known as Lord Carloway desire to regulate their legal mafia colleagues is a testimony to how one countries entire legal profession judiciary and their sympathisers, lobbyists fear one journalist they have no control over.
I frequently wrote about Peter Cherbi and his ability to bring reforms to the law where politicians feared to tread.
On submitting copy I often received a phone call threatening my existence as a journalist and depending on the perceived severity of the content calls often came in before publication.
I leave my experiences here for your readers to decide.
Noting your blog has references to recorded conversations I am happy to confirm each call I received and the content of meetings where attempts were made to persuade myself and others not to report on your findings were recorded in full and are still held today.
The judge and his brethren should not have any role in lawyers being investigated for client complaints
Judiciary carries on Scots legal industry Vendetta against journalist campaigner
is this from part of that criminal gang with the lawyer link being looked at?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw5w5zyg979o
Man convicted after cryptocurrency robbery
John Ross-D'Alfonso was described as the "technical" brains behind the crime 1 November 2023
A 28-year-old man from Lanarkshire has been convicted after having up to £1.2m worth of cryptocurrency in his account following a violent robbery.
John Ross D'Alfonso was described as the "technical" brains behind the crime - thought to be the first robbery in Scotland involving stolen cryptocurrency.
He had denied being part of the raid itself but was found guilty of reset, meaning he knowingly had something that was stolen and intended to keep it.
The High Court in Glasgow heard that three men went into a home in Blantyre in Lanarkshire and forced the homeowner to transfer his Bitcoin, a form of digital cash, to D'Alfonso's account.
The court was told that one of the men in the house was armed with a machete, and another repeatedly struck a woman on the head with a personalised Toblerone bar until it was covered in blood.
The three men then escaped in an expensive Audi car belonging to the homeowner after the cash was transferred.
The court heard that because of the unstable nature of the value of Bitcoin, it could have been worth anywhere between £100,000 and £1.2m when stolen on 18 March 2020.
D'Alfonso, who was a delivery driver from Cambuslang, had been described as the technical mind behind the robbery and denied being involved on the day.
He insisted a "scary" relative had forced him to put the money into his account.
Jurors were told there was "no dispute" the digital cash had been stolen and that it ended up in D'Alfonso's account and was transferred elsewhere.
Prosecutors said D'Alfonso had not been at the robbery that night and instead gave "technical expertise" to help steal the money.
D'Alfonso was cleared of robbery and assault charges and will be sentenced later this month in Edinburgh.
Det Insp Craig Potter, of Police Scotland’s Cyber Investigations unit called the case a complex investigation.
"This is a complex and constantly evolving technology," he said.
"Specialist cybercrime officers were able to follow the movement of funds to show he had been responsible for the bitcoin wallet which received the stolen funds.
"This conviction demonstrates Police Scotland capability and commitment to tackling criminality involving the digital space and bringing criminals operating in this world to justice."
Unfortunately it is not journalists who decided what appears in the press and what does not, it is Editors who in turn are beholding to owners.
4 November 2023 at 11:42
From my long experience in dodgy Scots media groups No
If legal sneaks call to editor who previously said yes then editor says no story binned
Later find out solicitor in story called paper's legal to nuke story for favour
In the world of bizarre Scotland Law Society members judge and hand out annual Press Awards
Do oil companies hand out gongs to green protesters for exposing oil spills? Nope.
"To make matters worse, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission later set into policy a system which intimidated clients who had already been ripped off by their solicitors – into signing Non Disclosure Agreements to conceal thousands of complaints against Scots multiple law firms over the last decade – with many law firms appearing week after week at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission to demand complainants sign more NDAs to conceal some of the worst and repetitive acts against clients which even the old Law Society of Scotland regime failed to keep away from public gaze."
Why does a legal complaints regulator sanction, require, intimidate, bully or impose Non Disclosure Agreements on clients who complain about their lawyers?
Awful and corrupt.
4 November 2023 at 11:42
tell us again what roles Editors play in the news department
Acid Attack: A Journalist's War With Organised Crime
So now you know everyone never trust a Scottish judge when they put their own profession before the entire country
Interesting BBC Scotland acting as mouthpiece for lawyers and judges threatening the Government against complaints reforms while the same broadcaster operates a boycott on the judicial register and any news linked to it.
Very nasty and biased news outlets in Scotland no wonder the entire country is *ucked and a judge can openly attack the public expectation of independent regulation of solicitors.
Strange all this hate from the judiciary and lawyers only flared up after the SNP promised to reform lawyers grip on investigating themselves and the judicial register.
Do we really have a Government in Scotland or is your headline of an unelected judiciary ruling over us much more accurate I believe so in this case and others we are yet to discover.
Come to think of it we also now have an unelected First Minister so the expectation of anything positive from the SNP is gone.
Well then
If Yousless had said all those guys in his speech are corrupt instead of White he may have been cheered instead of being in the news and branded a racist!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/elon-musk-snp-humza-yousaf-b2437518.html
Cherbi and Findlay seem to have written plenty news on corrupt lawyers and the Law Society but since then hardly any more.
It is very suspicious when the entire press in Scotland stop reporting on what we all know are thousands of cases a year of Scottish lawyers defrauding their clients.
The press in England are not as mute on the subject so this is obviously a Scotland thing where lawyers are able to dictate what is news and what is not.
BBC are even worse but what can we expect from pro union Biased Broadcasting Corporation not really journalism because they survived for decades on criminalising anyone who refuse to pay their tv license fee.
We all know how censorship goes in Scotland it is the same with the financial industry who go around ripping off old ladies in the same way those giving journalists awards for not writing about their friends and it is the same no matter who is in charge.
Forget Twitter you have to sign in to read posts even the Twitter links you find in Google a waste of time keep the blog updated you have much more detail here
Why are the editors collectively silent on the school teacher affair story?
and same for the partner affair(s)
We have all seen the pictures
Too busy concealing affairs and threatening against publication to do their job and hand over information in other areas
Too busy casting around blame to conceal their own dodgy secrets
Misleading the public is news
Being given the job by someone whose entire political career is based on a lie is news
You all think so with Westminster politicians so why not Scottish politicians?
Why pay attention to threats from a person who represents drug dealers and politicians
Does Scotland need a news org based outside the UK to cover real news?
The problem with most people who make contact claiming their lawyer did them a disservice is at some stage they tend to lie, and whenever a journalist asks to see original material the wronged client begins to transfer their line of attack to the journalist insisting they cannot hand over private legal documents and their word on what happened must be taken as the truth.
Obviously no one can write about what allegedly happens to a client of a solicitor if the original material of their complaint and evidence - not the made up version - is handed over to journalists so we have something to go on and can ask searching questions of legal regulators.
The issue is further complicated by the regular appearance in many lawyer-bad claims of a disrespectful nut who conned his way into a BBC investigation acting out for the cameras while feigning mental health episodes to cover up his infatuation with his former lawyer.
Giving a film crew the jitters to get what now reads as a false story across is one thing but resorting to threatening and intimidating journalists and attempts at hacking our email boxes drifts into the illegal as does attempting to plant false evidence on a lawyer forced to flee the UK because of a vengeful client who to this day uses a shield of mental problems to evade prosecution for threatening anyone who does not agree with him.
Therefore to readers of this blog and those who berate the media for not following up on 'my lawyer ripped me off stories' I say the following
If you take the time to contact a journalist and make legitimate claims you wish us to investigate hand over your material
If you lie, we know
If you are a conspiracy theorist or a nut we know
If you work with criminals we know
Just because you think you have a story does not mean instant publication nor does it mean the world must stop to hear what your lawyer did
On a personal note Cherbi, Findlay and those who write about rogue lawyers all deserve recognition for these law reforms which Lord Carloway claims threatens the very heart of our democracy. How did you ever put up with it all, Peter? Here's one from me ����
The legal year document posted in the article is well worth a read as there is much more including slavish praising of legal colleagues and PR extreme.
Well worth noting Scotland's top judge Lord Carloway to his gathered cheering legal feeble fans and the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales chose to target one journalist's long quest to give the public a better chance when their lawyer lets them down before Carloway deigns to speak of rape victims which his own courts and colleagues in the law have consistently let down since the Victorian era.
I think everyone who reads this blog should write a monthly email to their MSP asking 'what the hell is going on with the Petition for a register of judicial Interests' or better yet place a letter on the internet for supporters to sign. How many years have we been waiting for it to be made law?
Be thankful you never lowered your standards to receive an award from the missing lawyer of the £11M McLaren Fraud trial
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