Scotland's Funking Lawyers
I was young well edjicatit and looking for a dynamic career, I decided on law, perhaps a wee office of my own in Edinburgh or even a partnership in a big firm, dreaming of being a QC. ....I was young then...
Well I made it! I played with the big boys in the Chambers and the Court of Session don't you know - the Inner House and stuff like that - doing Motions in Court and anywhere else that I could do one. I thought it was just a bit of fun......BUT.....
Look at me now kids. My life ruined by greed and avarice. Nothing was ever enough - I had to have it all, you know - everyone else’s property. I had to own it. So kids learn my lesson and just say “NO TO A LIFE IN LAW”. I hope my story saves just one kid coz it’s too late for me - I’m corrupted now, twisted with legislation and bad motions. So be cool and remember just say “NO TO A LIFE IN LAW” Before it’s too late......
(The old man is now living in a big home for old lawyers thanks to the generosity of the clients he helped put out of business and onto the street. He would just like to say thanks but he is too far gone from morality to do so.)
The Law Society Motto Today – ‘Please give generously or we will take it anyway’.
The Law Society Motto Today – ‘Please give generously or we will take it anyway’.
Tesco Law For Scotland (BBC News Link)
1st October 2009
My pettifogger colleagues are playing games again.In the interview at the above link Ian Smart, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said: "Scots lawyers are well respected around the world”. Hee Haw Law
He claims, “However it will be vitally important that the bill ensures the independence of the legal profession promotes access to justice and maintains robust consumer protections and high standards among those delivering legal services."
There is NO independence of the legal profession. A Master Insurance policy for solicitors’ negligence, every solicitor in Scotland’s negligence that is, has to be purchased via the Law Society of Scotland’s insurance broker (Marsh UK) to get a practicing certificate. Marsh UK broker the policy to Sun Alliance and our solicitor friends pay very low premiums.
There is NO access to justice in the face of negligent lawyers, of whom there are many. (Name one other profession with more opportunity to comit fraud apart from bankers.) Try to get a solicitor to act for you against another solicitor and they will do so just long enough to fee monger a bill, then they’ll drop you. Why? The Master Insurance policy broker says so. Marsh UK sits in on solicitor disciplinary tribunals. It is they who determine which solicitors are disciplined NOT the Law Society. Watch out for who the Law Society strike off in the papers. Always the one man band they get heavy with, never the corporate, respectable partnerships. The more ‘respectable’ the image of the company, the more plausible the scamster.
Hee Haw Law, ‘robust consumer protection’ I ask you! Have you tried complaining to the Law Society recently? Or its worse counterpart the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission? These organisations are designed to protect the solicitor only and to confuse the complainer. Indeed the Law Society of Scotland is regarded as among the worst self-governing bodies in the world (according to a recent report). What consumer protection?
’...and high standards among those delivering legal services.’ High fees more like. Hee Haw!!
There Is A Sickness In The Scottsih Legal Profession
There is a sickness in the Scottish legal profession. It is a chronic sickness that will prove fatal to our notions of Scottish independence and our economy if we do not attend to it now - before we make our first faltering attempts at autonomy. The justice system of any democracy is one of its most vital organs -- its supreme health is essential to democracy's survival.
The majority of Scottish citizens will live their entire lives blissfully unaware of the ailments afflicting our solicitor and Q.C. friends (particularly those super sized, super respectable partnerships ) but I’m not so sure that’s a good thing ....maybe yet another public health awareness programme is required.
We are told we have one of the ‘best justice systems in the world’, however the only reason we know this is because our justice system keeps telling us so - while it makes quite sure the voices of anyone who saying anything to the contrary are never heard. And there are plenty of voices saying plenty to the contrary.
While I am quite aware that solicitors do not begin with the best of reputations in the first place, all in all when any one of us requires the services of a solicitor usually things go pretty smoothly. Most solicitors are fairly competent beings (I’m still not entirely certain they are human) who will get the job done. They will then likely send you a bill we mere mortals would find difficult to justify. Begrudgingly we pay the bill and life moves on.
It’s when the service isn’t up to scratch that the symptoms of the legal sickness present themselves. Environmentally aggravating factors like complaints to the Law Society of Scotland are usually enough to trigger severe bouts of coverupitus, which rapidly lead to a full blown outbreak of corruptionpox - and this can often last a lifetime.
The cure is not complex but this sickness is long established. We literally need to shock the justice system back to its senses – give a jolt to justice and remind these people (just maybe they are human) that they provide a crucial service to society the purpose of which is not simply to line their little pockets and serve their insuring marshers, sorry masters. That would be Marsh UK – The Law Society of Scotland’s insurance broker who curiously broker, what is known as The Master Insurance Policy to The Royal Sun Alliance every year.
This insurance policy covers all negligence claims against all Scottish solicitors – and is an insurance policy every solicitor in Scotland requires to ‘purchase’ in order to receive their practicing certificates from the Law Society. Hey ho!
It’s cheap for them, of course, which is why it isn’t perceived by legal firms or practitioners as impeding their competitiveness (according to a recent report). What is does do is entirely discourage any solicitor from acting for any client who is attempting to sue a solicitor for negligence. No matter how serious the consequences are of the negligent solicitor’s actions. After all their mutual premium will rise, and anyhow it’s the insurance companies who decide which solicitors are disciplined and which are not - not their Discipline Tribunal.
What’s the quid quo pro here? Surely the Law Society isn’t just being tight and trying to save we taxpayers a few pennies at the expense of the general populations’ access to justice? Surely there’s a risk, to the insurer of every solicitor in the country’s negligence claims, that serious losses may arise given the high risk nature of the policy and the ridiculously low rate of premium?
Or maybe these insurers save much more as a result of this policy than first meets the eye. After all we don’t have that silly system the American’s have (or even the English) which does in fact compensate people properly for losses and damage on behalf of the individual and small companies through its court system. I mean it’s only the insurance companies who have to pay for all these damages. Bless!
Here in Scotland the insurers just don’t have to worry about silly things like paying out on policies that they issue. They have an army of lackey lawyers willing and, unfortunately able, to do their bidding – in return for pretty steady employment. (Lawyers need jobs too. Check out your Yellow Pages – we have more solicitors in this country than we do hairdressers all vying for limited work opportunities from our relatively small population.)
BBC Scotland - caller describes the rampant corruption in Scotland
Joe Dowling's Direct Action Approach Watch this video of Joe Dowling's exposé detailing the criminal routines of the Law Society in which runs a protection racket in England and Wales for fraudulent law firms.
www.myspace.com/corruptscotlawyers
