CRCS Legal January 2024 Newsletter

Complaint Resolution Compliance Solutions

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Happy New Year and welcome to our first newsletter of 2024! It has certainly been an interesting start to 2024.

Mr Bates and the Post Office

An estimated 3.6 million people watched the first episode. This public interest is a long time coming. Over the last 20 years, hundreds of people have been accused of theft, fraud and false accounting by the Post Office. Each accused was allegedly told only their post office was experiencing issues with the Horizon System. There is an ongoing, delayed public inquiry. Delayed again by the Post Office’s late disclosure.? Apparently, the Post Office have spent 28.4 million on disclosure alone.

Sub-post master’s have been bankrupted, imprisoned and committed suicide. They were shunned by their communities. This is one of the worst scandals in British Legal History.

The SRA, who are an important participant in the Inquiry will not pursue any disciplinary action until the inquiry is complete.

There is an interesting Change.org petition.

Know your expert and pay the correct court fee

SSB Group in Sheffield, first filed notice to enter into Administration in November 2023 but finally entered into Administration on the 4th of January 2024. The Directors reportedly said:? “ongoing financial challenges and has been marketed for sale in order to secure fresh investment'.

SSB acquired around 13,500 Cavity Wall Insulation cases from the doomed Pure Legal in November 2021.?

There has since been several devastating judgements.

Jagger and others v AXA Insurance UK Plc [2023] 7 WLUK 263:

DJ Dawson found that SSB had abused the court process on two separate counts: (i) understating the value of the claims and failing to pay increased issue fees on increase of the pleaded value; and, (ii) instructing an expert whilst in the knowledge that there were significant concerns relating to that expert’s independence.

Dermot Joseph Doyle v HDI Global Speciality SE[2023] EWHC 2722 (KB)

An expert witness refused to act on cavity wall claims after accusing SSB of not paying him and naming him on cases without his knowledge.

The allegations emerged from an email sent in August 2022 by the unnamed expert to the court. The email said that SSB Law had submitted reports for cases that purported to have the expert’s signature, but in all instances he had not seen or participated in the creation of the report. It added: ‘SB Law [sic] have routinely named me on cases, often without my consent of [sic] knowledge, and/then issued instructions after the event.’

In the light of the expert’s email to the court, the judge disallowed an application from Doyle for a six-month stay to allow time to liaise with him.

In a related case of Rowe, His Honour Judge Khan concluded that the claim was bound to fail without an expert giving evidence for Rowe. This decision again followed the instructed expert withdrawing his services because he had not been paid. The court in Rowe had also heard that the expert emailed SSB in May 2022 saying that costings had been ‘exaggerated in almost all cases’.

To add to the woe, multiple former clients of SBB claim that Bailiffs have shown up at their door for adverse costs. On a Social Media forum, a post said “In the case of my 77 year old mother who never owed a penny to anyone in her life, she was landed last week with a Notice of Enforcement for ￡18,000”.

It will be interesting to see the next step from our Regulator.

Fixed Fine for Late Diversity Data

A Criminal Firm based in Leicestershire, was ordered to pay ￡750 and costs of ￡150 by the SRA. They did not supply their diversity data in time.

The fine is the first stage one of the fixed penalties recently introduced by the SRA, ￡750 for a first breach and ￡1,500 for a subsequent breach of the same category within three years.

This shows the importance of compliance with ALL issues you are expected to comply with.?

Wills: Electronic Wills; “Predatory Marriage”.

The Law Commission launched a supplementary consultation on electronic wills in October, six years after its original proposals, asking whether a new Wills Act should give the justice secretary an enabling power to introduce electronic wills at some point in the future or whether they should be introduced on the face of the legislation. Preserving original paper wills and supporting documents in probate applications costs ￡4.5m a year, according to a Ministry of Justice consultation published last week – with the figure expected to rise every year.

The commission also asked whether marriage or civil partnership should automatically revoke a will, given concerns over ‘predatory marriages’ – where a person marries someone elderly or who lacks mental capacity as a form of financial abuse.

In their responses, both the Law Society and STEP opposed a change in the law on revocation, while acknowledging that members were evenly divided on the issue.

The Law society said its survey of 895 specialist wills and probate solicitors earlier in the year showed that 42% wanted the law to be changed to stop marriage or civil partnership automatically revoking a will, while 42% opposed it.

The Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 could be amended, so that if a marriage was entered into when someone lacked capacity to marry, then it would be deemed void from the start and would not revoke a will.

On electronic wills, STEP said they should only be valid if registered and stored on a government-authorised central storage system. “It is thought that this could be done using blockchain technology.”

STEP called for a new Electronic Wills Act which “on the face of that act” permitted electronic wills and contained a list of the requirements that must be met for an electronic will to be valid.

The Law Society took a different approach, calling for the new Wills Act to contain an enabling power allowing the justice secretary to bring forward secondary legislation on electronic wills.

Both STEP and the Law Society supported retaining the option of a paper will to ensure that people who might struggle to make a will electronically are not disadvantaged.

A New Year, but don’t backdate….

Do your staff understand the importance of dating documents accurately?

A recent decision involves an advanced paralegal member of CILEX who worked for south London firm Deton Solicitors. The SRA said he had dishonestly tried to mislead the court into believing a defence had been served and filed earlier than it was: the regulator described this as an ‘act of deceit’.

The paralegal was made subject to a section 43 order preventing him from working for any regulated firm without the SRA’s permission. He was also ordered to pay ￡1,350 costs.

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Welcome

CRCS Legal is expanding again-welcome to our new Consultant Schamille Jooma.? He is a compliance expert with vast knowledge and experience.? We are delighted that he has decided to join our team and look forward to him enhancing the skills we have to help our clients.?

Are your policies up to date?

How can CRCS Legal Ltd help?

The New Year is the ideal time to review and take control of the risks faced by legal firms for the coming year.? The risk of non-compliance is real, serious, and costly.? We can provide:

A comprehensive compliance and web-site health check. A thorough look at your policies and procedures with solutions for any non-compliance.

Technical compliance support on an ad hoc or retainer basis. This will give you direct access to compliance professionals.

Complaint handling and assistance with the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) We can investigate the complaints, make recommendations, and draft your complaint response. We have years of experience of dealing with Le0.

Compliance training – one off training courses and comprehensive training programmes.? We can help you comply with the SRA’s continuing competence requirements.

File reviews and audits – detailed and in-depth reviews in accordance with the SRA supervision requirements.

Bespoke Compliance policies, procedures and templates.?

Assistance with Lexcel accreditation and visits

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) – a review of procedures and policies update

Transparency rules – Are you publishing the correct costs and complaints information?

GDPR and the ICO – including managing data breaches and SARs.

Advice on PII renewal

Assistance with SRA investigations and prosecutions

Merger and Acquisitions- assessment of regulatory compliance issues and due diligence.

Take control of your risk and contact us today for a confidential, free non binding discussion-03302210511 [email protected]

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