The following excerpt is taken from the Gazette's article on the Forster Scandal....

The Gazette reveals how the Law Society of Scotland ignored complaints about disgraced former solicitor John Kennedy Forster for NINE YEARS and only acted after our exclusive coverage of clients' misgivings.

Forster was finally jailed for six and a half years for embezzling over £667,000 from client accounts even though The Law Society had told the Gazette as late as April 2000 that there were no aspects of the Forster case which required their intervention.

But just two weeks later, after further revelations by The Gazette, The Law Society finally handed over the Forster case to the Crown Office for possible criminal proceedings.
One former client told the Gazette this week that he felt betrayed by The Law Society and felt that no action would have been taken had The Galloway Gazette not brought extensive publicity to the case.

Positive Spin

Yet despite this, the Law Society last week sought to put a positive spin on its eventual handling of the Forster case after the former solicitor was finally jailed in the High Court.
Its President, Joe Platt insisted that the Society always worked in the best interests of the public.

He said: “This is an example of the Law Society doing its job well and taking every effort to ensure that the public are protected from any rogue solicitor.”

But Gazette Editor Peter Jeal said: “Far from demonstrating that The Law Society has ‘done it’s job well’ the Forster case has only served to highlight the need for an independent complaints authority to be set up.

What is clear from this sorry tale is that The Law Society cannot possibly serve the interests of its members, solicitors, and the interests of the public at the same time."

“On their own admission, they only started to take this case seriously in April 2000 after The Gazette highlighted client concerns which date as far back as 1991.
“We will be calling on the Justice Minister, Cathy Jamieson, to put in place an independent complaints authority to deal with complaints against solicitors.”

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Our thoughts and questions on this scandal...

It comes as no suprise to find that the Law Society of Scotland tried its damndest to protect Forster from the consequences of his crimes. Had it not been for the Galloway Gazette's determination to highlight his criminality, he would, no doubt, have continued to avoid justice. Word has it that this former part-time sheriff served only a fraction of his six-and-a-half year sentence.

Were his victims recompensed?

SACL are also investigating the possibility that some of his victims have yet to be compensated. In the vast majority of embezzlement cases, a guilty plea is usually tendered for an amount which is much smaller than that labelled on the Indictment. One must assume that this case is no different. It follows that the true scale of Forster's dishonesty may be much greater than the £660,000 to which he ultimately pled guilty to taking.

Pled guilty to embezzling...	£667,000	Actual figure could be 10-fold	i.e. £6.6 Million
Amount allegedly recovered from Forster's estate	£320,000
Amount Paid out by the Guarantee Fund between 2000 and 2004 to ALL victims of crooked lawyers, including Forster's victims	£910,000	So did all the little old ladies and charities get their money back?	FAT CHANCE!

Page References:

www.GallowayGazette.com A link to the Galloway Gazette website

Report on amount recovered from Forster

Report on Forster's High Court Conviction