Perth Law firm & Accountant in Bankruptcy lose bitter fight for disputed legal fees as MSP secures discharge for disabled client after FOUR YEAR ORDEAL

MSP Jayne Baxter secures relief for constituent in bitter fight over legal fees.THE CASE of a Perth client who has been through an horrific FOUR YEAR ordeal initiated by a Perth based law firm & Scotland’s Accountant in Bankruptcy (AIB) over fees claimed to be owed for a personal injury case, has sensationally collapsed after it was revealed this week the client has been officially discharged by the AIB from any alleged debts and that no funds were repaid to either the AIB or the law firm who claimed to be owed the money.

Just days ago, Mr William Gordon, of Perth, was notified by the office of Jayne Baxter MSP, he had been discharged by the AIB in late November 2012 from any alleged debts due to Perth based law firm Kippen Campbell.

The discharge, which frees Mr Gordon from any further claim by his former solicitors, comes after a long running battle over disputed legal fees Kippen Campbell claimed were due to them even though they had withdrawn from acting for their client and left him on the steps of the Court of Session to face a judge, alone, in his personal injury claim.

Notification of the discharge was only provided to Jayne Baxter, Mr Gordon’s MSP, after several requests from Mrs Baxter and her staff to the AIB for copies of the documents and an update on her constituent, Mr Gordon’s position.

Copies of papers received by the MSP and handed to Diary of Injustice appear to show the AIB and it’s agents who acted in the case, Glasgow based accountants Wylie & Bisset, failed to provide Mr Gordon with any notification of his discharge in November of last year. The delay of seven long months in informing Mr Gordon of his discharge, raises serious questions as to why the AIB felt they could keep Mr Gordon in a state of flux for some seven months after the discharge took effect.

It has also been revealed the AIB are refusing to supply Mr Gordon and his MSP with a copy of the actual discharge certificate, citing a rule over fees, despite the fact the entire case has already cost the taxpayer a significant amount of money. Representatives of Mr Gordon who have been helping him through this long ordeal have today told Diary of Injustice they will continue to pursue the AIB for a copy of the actual discharge certificate, given Mr Gordon’s entitlement to a copy and to help establish more details surrounding the AIB’s conduct in this case.

Given the shocking treatment of Mr Gordon in this case, Diary of Injustice feels there must be a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the AIB's conduct towards Mr Gordon and the actions of its agents in the wake of claims no authentic court papers were ever served on Mr Gordon nor was he given the chance to challenge events, due to circumstances of poor health which have been verified by his own doctor to the court on each required occasion.

There are also serious questions over the activities of the AIB’s agents, who attempted to seize the rented house Mr Gordon lives in, and the house of another individual unrelated to Mr Gordon, with a view to scoop the proceeds of the sale of both properties in lieu of the less than three thousand pounds claimed to be owed to the law firm.

The AIB’s move to seize Mr Gordon’s home and a property belonging to someone else, was reported by Scottish Law Reporter and the Herald newspaper, here : Accountant in Bankruptcy agents try to seize wrong house in bankruptcy of disabled client ordered by Perth law firm over disputed legal fees

AIB threatened to seize two properties for a £2.7K debt to solicitors. In letters sent to Mr Gordon, AIB agents Wylie & Bisset demand a “required payment” of NINETY TWO THOUSAND & FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS, and went on to threaten “We require firm proposals for the realisation of the sum in question to your sequestrated estate as a matter of urgency. Should we not receive your proposals within 14 days of the date of this letter, then please be aware that we shall be forced to seek action for vacant possession of the property.”.The second property located in Rattray, Blairgowrie, and owned by a family unconnected to Mr Gordon was valued by AIB agents Wylie & Bisset, at £185,000. However, the debt allegedly owed to Kippen Campbell amounted to little more than £2,700.

Along with the freezing of Mr Gordon’s access to his state disability benefits for seven months – an act on its own which is reprehensible and not acceptable in terms of the law as it stands, nothing short of a full investigation into, and an accounting of the AIB’s activities in this case must take place and be published in the public interest.

How a law firm and bankruptcy regulations were used to hound a disabled client for dodgy fees :

Diary of Injustice initially reported on the long running case of Mr Gordon in December 2009, when it was revealed the then head of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission Jane Irvine was to be cited as a witness at Perth Sheriff Court after it was revealed Kippen Campbell had tried to charge their former client a fee for dealing with complaints.

During October 2010, the case came back into the media spotlight with Kippen Campbell took their case to Perth Sheriff Court in an attempt to pursue Mr Gordon for the fees they claimed to be owed, reported here : Personal injury client dropped by Perth based solicitors Kippen Campbell ‘being hounded’ by court attempts to recover disputed fees

Later in October 2010 it was also revealed by Diary of Injustice that Sally McCartney, a partner at Kippen Campbell and the solicitor at the heart of the case against Mr Gordon had lobbied the Scottish Parliament against independent regulation of solicitors Scottish Parliament documents reveal Perth law firm in complaint fees case campaigned against Holyrood clean-up of regulation of lawyers

In July of 2012, Diary of Injustice featured a further article on the case, revealing Mr Gordon’s now two years of hell could have been avoided if the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission had used their powers on fee nullification in the course of considering Mr Gordon’s complaints against his then solicitors Kippen Campbell.

Material also presented to Diary of Injustice at the time and featured in the report, revealed the private firm of accountants acting on behalf of the Accountant in Bankruptcy, had also frozen access to his disability benefits, here : Solicitors regulator blamed for failure to use powers on fees as accountants seize Disability benefits to pay Perth law firm for collapsed court case

As further enquiries continued into Mr Gordon’s case, an investigation by the media of the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s conduct revealed over £8 million pounds of taxpayers money was being handed on a plate to private firms of accountants by the AIB, reported by Diary of Injustice here : £8 MILLION of YOUR MONEY spent on ‘BULLY BOY’ agents as papers to MSP reveal Accountant in Bankruptcy secretly seize benefits of disabled, trashing lives of Scots on the brink

Scottish Law Commission criticised as Draft Bankruptcy Act for Scotland fails to protect weakest victims of debt & insolvency from AIB’s multi million pound sequestration racket

Missed opportunity to protect vulnerable Scots from draconian Bankruptcy powers. A REPORT presented by the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) on the Consolidation of Bankruptcy Legislation in Scotland has been branded by critics as a missed opportunity to curb & control the multi million pound sequestration racket in Scotland which sees private firms of accountants gain millions of pounds in little talked about public contracts to go after people who have little or no ability to pay back their debts.

Rather than address the most pressing & critical problems involving sequestrations & bankruptcies in Scotland, which in several cases have seen agents acting for the Accountant in Bankruptcy freezing state disability payments to the long term sick & disabled, the Scottish Law Commission has chosen to fiddle with definitions & semantics of legislation in order to ‘consolidate’ legislation which is currently working as a license for private accountants to print money at the taxpayers expense.

In its official figures published on 24 April 2013, the Accountant in Bankruptcy reported that for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2012-13 there were 3,472 personal insolvencies in Scotland, generating millions of pounds of private contracts handed out to select private firms of accountants.

Diary of Injustice has previously reported on how lavish multi million pound contracts are handed out to accountancy firms by the AIB, here : £8 MILLION of YOUR MONEY spent on ‘BULLY BOY’ agents as papers to MSP reveal Accountant in Bankruptcy secretly seize benefits of disabled, trashing lives of Scots on the brink

Most of the law recommended for consolidation is already contained in the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985. The 1985 Act has been heavily amended in recent years, most notably by the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007. Many of the provisions of the 1985 Act are excessively long and the structure of the Act has become difficult to follow with the result that the Act has lost coherence.

The Report makes a number of recommendations for amendments to the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985. The changes relate to matters of technical detail and are intended to remove anomalies, treat like cases in the same way or to omit provisions that no longer serve any purpose.

Annexed to the Report are -

A Bankruptcy (Scotland) Bill to consolidate the legislation;
Tables of Destinations and Derivations relating to the provisions;
A draft Order which we envisage would be made under section 104 of the Scotland Act 1998
and which would give effect to certain provisions of the Bill in other parts of the UK.
The Commission has worked closely with the Accountant in Bankruptcy in producing the Report.

Commenting on the Scottish Law Commission's report, Lady Clark of Calton, the Chairman of the Commission said : "It is important that the law on bankruptcy should be stated in a clear and accessible form. The existing statutory provisions dealing with bankruptcy are cumbersome and difficult to use. We hope that consolidating the legislation will make it easier and more efficient for practitioners and others to provide advice to people faced with personal bankruptcy”.

Rosemary Winter-Scott, Chief Executive of Accountant in Bankruptcy who has previously refused to answer questions on why her organisation has frozen access to benefits payments to the disabled for up to seven months at a time, said : “We welcome the Scottish Law Commission’s Report on the Consolidation of Bankruptcy Legislation in Scotland. Bankruptcy legislation in Scotland has been heavily amended over the years and the consolidation will ensure that the legislation is more accessible for practitioners and those affected by it. A Bankruptcy Bill is due to be introduced in the Scottish Parliament this summer. We expect the Consolidation Bill to follow after that Bill has completed the parliamentary process. This will bring bankruptcy legislation in Scotland into the 21st century.”

However, a spokesperson for one of Scotland’s consumer organisations told Diary of Injustice she was dismayed the Scottish Law Commission had not taken the opportunity to look deeper into how the Accountant in Bankruptcy has effectively misused its powers to force debt ridden victims into complicated long term repayment deals which are clearly unaffordable and not required in terms of law.

She said : “The Scottish Law Commission is well aware of substantial problems with the application of bankruptcy legislation in Scotland and this would have been a good opportunity to suggest amendments to ensure the weakest in society are protected from actions undertaken by the AIB against persons who are in receipt of disability benefits, actions which are clearly unacceptable in a civilised society.”

More can be read on the Scottish Law Commission’s report on Bankruptcy legislation HERE

With the prospect of new legislation being put before the Scottish Parliament, anyone who has been sequestrated or made bankrupt in Scotland and who has experienced difficulties with the Accountant in Bankruptcy and their agents, are encouraged to write to their MSPs and make submissions to the Scottish Parliament.

If you have encountered problems with the Accountant in Bankruptcy or their agents, Diary of Injustice would also like to hear from you via scottishlawreporters@gmail.com