What some victims have to say...
The following statements are taken from a 2001 parliamentary Inquiry into legal self regulation. However, please note parliament's lawyers have hidden and doctored large sections of this evidence, including even the names of those who took the time to submit evidence. Doctored evidence also includes Annual Reports from the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman - see submission No. 24.
Submission No 10
"Some of my complaints have been given such a twist in the wording as to make them seem a fabrication."
Name witheld by Parliament's Lawyers
Submission No 14
"the Law Society, which is defending its members with every possible legal manipulation"
Rosemary Samios
Submission No 17
"The attitude applied by the Law Society and their members results in protracted prevarication, obfuscation and a contemptuous indifference to their supposed Duty of Care to their clients."
Hugh Cameron
Submission No 19
"I was in the hands of an endlessly implacable tyranny that abides by no code, legal or humane."
Name originally witheld by Parliament's Lawyers - but we can reveal it was Billy Burns, one of our members!
Submission No 22
"the mountain of legal actions generated by this lawyer...caused extreme psychological trauma for all of my family. This was at a time when I had been diagnosed and treated for cancer and at a time when I was facing endless court hearings."
Name originally witheld by Parliament's Lawyers - but we can reveal it was Duncan Shields, a tireless legal campaigner.
Submission No 24
"I submit the following facts and circumstances, and evidence, that self-regulation of the legal profession is nothing less than a national disgrace, an affront to justice, and must be removed."
Name originally witheld by Parliament's Lawyers - but we can reveal it was Stewart MacKenzie, who is subject of the infamous leaked Law Society Internal Memo (click on image above to read). Stewart's written submission to parliament included quotes from an Annual Report published by the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman, in which the SLSO was highly critical of the Law Society and legal self regulation. Parliament's lawyers "censored" large portions of this report, despite this document being available to the general public. Parliament's Chief Exec, Paul Grice, apologised for what he termed "an oversight". Hmmm, even parliament's lawyers appear willing to go to extraordinary lengths to protect their professional body!
Submission No 25
"The Law Society of Scotland would seem to exist to protect the interests of its members rather than those of its members’ clients. The use of any means to achieve this end include procrastination, obfuscation, mendacity, changing rulings and concealment of information, all of which and more I have experienced."
Jean McPherson Oliver
Submission No 32
"[Lawyers X] ruined me...they used my money without my authority, cost me my business which took me 15 years to build up......ruined my health and the health of my family"
William Hughes
Submission No 34
"This matter could have been resolved if the Law Society had investigated the actions of the solicitors....By defrauding me of my property and rental monies, this firm of solicitors has caused my family and I severe financial hardship, not to mention considerable stress over these last 15 years."
Peter Zani
Submission No 39
"...as a result of the chronic refusal of the Law Society to exert any realistic level of discipline and accountability over solicitors, the behaviour of significant numbers of solicitors has become tainted by arrogance and a belief that they are untouchable."
Jim Robb
Submission No 41
"My experiences have been mirrored in many people I have spoken to over the years, who's lives have been wrecked and in some cases finished by the misconduct and institutional corruption pervading every agency I have contacted which deals on behalf of, or in concert with the legal profession in Scotland"
David Boyce (1 of 42 Clients)
Submission No 52
"…whose involvement in the processes of legal complaint in Scotland led to considerable levels of stress which affected her mental health severely. The details of her initial complaint related to the handling of a will and, although this had stress enough of its own, it was the subsequent dealings with the Law Society which are of greatest concern to her. "
Rev. John McLuckie
Submission No 53
"Now, finally, my daughter and I are facing homelessness."
Katherine Dunning
Submission No 55
"we have severe reservations on how conduct complaints which we made against the specific solicitor were handled."
Mr & Mrs Allison
Submission No 60
"It is my strong belief that complaints against and about solicitors can only be made fair, workable and transparent if it is taken away from the Law Society and dealt with independently."
Giles Davies (a former solicitor)
Submission No 65
"…secrecy is the best device the self-regulators have available to them to protect their members from the consequences of their misconduct. Only when the misconduct is so blatant and so obvious do the self-regulators admit defeat. Otherwise every aspect of sophistry will be used to protect those lawyers who practise professional misconduct and negligence."
Tom Crooks
Submission No 66
"..the present system of self-regulation needs to be removed for something much more independent & fair to the consumer of legal services, as what we have presently at the Law Society is a liars charter, written by liars, for liars, which maximises protection to the lawyer and minimises the client's rights at every level when things go wrong."
Peter Cherbi
Submission No 68
"An outline of my terrible ordeal at the hands of corrupt solicitors, protected by the Law Society of Scotland, and others.......is as follows:"
Mrs Mary Craig
Submission No 70
"A complaint made by my Westminster MP to the Law Scotland of Scotland about his conduct was dismissed, despite the clear evidence of the solicitor's dishonesty........The Law Society was only concerned with protecting the interests of the solicitors even to the point of condoning dishonesty."
Charles Townsend
Submission No 71
"The Law Society is only there to protect Lawyers and fails to protect the public which they advertise as their main purpose."
Roger Soep
FALSE Submission No 79
"2.4 - The Society is not involved in the handling or resolution of individual claims. "
Alistair Sim - Marsh UK Ltd
Click here to read the top secret law society memo in which the Law Society conspire to influence the outcome of a claim.
Submission No 84 - DYNAMITE! - but heavily censored
".....the Dean [of the Faculty of Advocates] continued in what I believe was his deception."
Eirlys Smith, Senior Advocate
This Advocate sent a dynamite submission to parliament's Justice 1 Committee alleging serious misconduct and criminality by senior members of the Faculty of Advocates.
Click Here to open the Scottish Parliament's website and look at Submission No 82 - Lloyd (Eirlys Smith is now Eirlys Lloyd) Her evidence is a large file (3Mb) - and may take some time to download. Note how parliament's lawyers have carefully doctored all 168 pages of her evidence!
Submission No 83
"I can state, with the greatest certainty, that the Law Society of Scotland covers up and conceals crime committed by crooked lawyers/law firms on a regular basis. In other words, and in a more modern idiom, it is nothing less than a Crime Protection Syndicate for the benefit of its own membership and licensees"
Stuart Usher
Submission No 84
"Mrs Abercromby lodged a complaint with the Society alleging professional misconduct against SolicitorX. ...what happened to that complaint...and was it ever determined by the Society, since it is clear to me from the papers that there is a prima facie question of serious professional misconduct here."
an honourable Scottish Solicitor representing Mrs Abercromby
Submission No 87
"A MAJOR INQUIRY is a very positive step to ensure that....there is no conflict of interest by Parliamentary members who are also (1) members of the Legal Profession, (2) associated with the legal fraternity, or (3) related to any member of the Legal Profession. Only then can the public in general, and SACL in particular, place any trust in this Inquiry."
Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers
Submission No 90
"The past fifteen years of my life have been dominated by the tortuous process of trying to remedy serial cases of negligence and bad faith (deception) and the Law Society of Scotland's repeated refusal to investigate the most damning of prima facie cases of professional misconduct"
Iain McIntyre
Click Here to view a video of John Swinney MSP explaining to parliament the covert attempts by the Law Society to deny Mr McIntyre legal representation
Submission No 101
"Three years of time, stress and a great waste of public funds could have been avoided...what is the point of an Ombudsman without power? What has happened to justice and integrity?"
Mrs Jane Hansen
Submission No 105
"I am now in my fifteenth year of dealing with Lawyers and their various styles of practice. I have gone through all the proper channels....This has been a complete nightmare for me and my family."
Linda Wallace
Submission No 116
"During the YEARS it took the Law Society 'to investigate 'one of their own', I was able to attend university and obtain a BA (Hons) Law and Management degree! I had intended to study further in order to become a lawyer myself, but this episode sickened me."
Derek Mortimer