LAWYERS BLACKLISTS

As we have received many questions on how to list and whom is listed, this post will
explain why we need to do this. It is extremely important to be able to
develop a database of incompetent, questionable and negligent lawyers and their
firms for injured workers to be able to refer to WCV’s firmly believes that we should
have the right to choose a suitably qualified lawyer to run our cases.

WCV’s has recently contacted the LIV and asked them about any listings they
have available for clients to evaluate any specific lawyer or firm? We were told
rudely that there was no such list and all that they could do was to refer me to
one of their registered lawyers.

So with that, it got me thinking about why, there isn’t anybody policing the lawyers?
Who keeps these statsor a register of lawyers that have acted questionably and if
there isn’t one, then why not?

Why don’t the LIV keep such a register? Isn’t it their job to monitor the legal profession? We also want to know exactly how many lawyers are or have abused their positions and we want a register made available to the public for reference.

We should be able to look into a lawyers experience in a specific field and know that they are competent enough to do their jobs!

It just goes to show we cannot trust the very people we turn to when we need to battle worksafe and with the odds below I don’t like injured workers chances!

AUSTRALIAN LAWYERS:

1. Disbarred lawyer says loan sharks were funded by city's underworld
The Age, Steve Butcher, July 5, 2006

2. I want to start a fresh, pleads disbarred lawyer. The Sydney Morning Herald, By Stephen Gibbs, March 27, 2006

3. Lawyers' credibility has gone up in smoke The Age, By Adrian Evans and Jonathan Liberman , June 11 2002

4. Lawyer Peter Faris facing disbarment over drugs comments The Herald Sun, October 29, 2007

5. Shepherdson probe perjurer disbarred. Australasian Business Intelligence , Sunday, December 9 2001

6. Solicitor George Bourozikas jailed for stealing $100k from estate Article from: The Herald Sun, Shelley Hadfield

7. A SOLICITOR has been jailed after stealing $100,000 from a dead woman's
estate, using the cash to fund a trip to Greece.
The herald Sun, November 19, 2008

The above list is just a few of the stories I have found and my concern is if this is
only a small percentage of the stories I actually found then we need to worry
seriously about this issue. Injured workers are being robbed by their employers,
worksafe and now their legal representatives when does it stop?
Send in your stories and help us to develop an accurate database for injured
workers to be able to refer to when choosing their lawyers.

The rogues of this industry need to be exposed!

INTERNATIONAL LAWYERS:

These stories have been included simply for their stories values it may
help you in the writing of your own listing.

Corrupt lawyer cheated hospitals
A solicitor defrauded the health service of more than £270,000 over eight years,
the Audit Office has said. Most of the late George Brangam's fraud involved
medical negligence cases, the government watchdog found. He would invoice
health bodies for more money than the case had actually been settled for, and
then keep the extra cash, ranging from £1,250 up to £75,000. Auditors found
the fraud could have been detected earlier if existing financial controls had been
used. A senior partner in legal firm Brangam, Bagnall and Co, George Brangam
died last August. It has emerged he had earlier received an award for excellence
from the Law Society of Northern Ireland. (Excellent by their usual standards UJ)
BBC, 04 Jul 2008

Lawyer hid camera in ladies' loo
A solicitor has admitted hiding a video camera inside a ladies' toilet cubicle and
secretly filming female staff. Stirling Sheriff Court heard that Peter Fitzpatrick,
49, put the device into a cardboard box within the cubicle at law firm Muirhead
Buchanan in Stirling. The father-of-two, who has been a solicitor for 27 years,
was caught after a secretary noticed a hole in the box was pointing at the pedestal.
Fitzpatrick, of Rutherglen, is due to be sentenced next month.
BBC, 09 Jun 2008

Crooked solicitor spent client money on 'a Rolex, loose women and drink'
Three crooked members of a family law firm who lived a life of luxury on
£840,000 of clients' cash have been thrown out of the profession. Imran,
Saira and Shamim Karim were described as "dangerous to the profession a
nd the public" after they kept money from property deals. Senior partner
Imran Karim, 40, boasted five cars including a Ferrari 335 Belinetta and a
north London flat, all paid for by clients of Karim and Co.
Croydon Guardian, 09 Jun 2008

Convicted pedophile JP jailed
A magistrate from Croydon known as "The Zoo Man" who trawled the internet
for images of children being sexually abused was today jailed for nine months.
Zoologist Terry Mills, 58, spent his days visiting primary schools showing
children exotic reptiles and his evenings building up a library of child pornography.
He watched a film entitled "German Blondie" and received emails marked
"British Boys" and "Busy at Both Ends", Southwark Crown Court heard.
Croydon Guardian, 09 Jun 2008

Seven years for money launderer
A PROPERTY magnate from Canons Park who laundered at least £13.8m
with an Ealing lawyer has been jailed for seven years. John Donnan, 52, of
Watersfield Way, ran a series of bogus companies with his solicitor, Gerard
Hyde, 55, of Priory Gardens, allowing friends to operate a 16-month VAT
fraud. The firms imported mobile phones tax free but sold them on with an
extra 17.5 per cent profit, which was then shared with Donnan and Hyde.
Harrow Times
24 May 2008

Struck off after spending thousands on strippers
A LAWYER from Highgate has been kicked out of the profession after he blew
more than £200,000 of his firm's cash on strippers. Divorced father of three
Paul Saffron, 43, from Stanhope Road, raided the accounts of top law firm
Radcliffes Le Brasseur over more than three years. He spent most of the cash
on lap dancers in clubs across London. Colleagues at the 150-year-old law firm
called in the police when they discovered a £104,000 hole in the accounts.
Saffron insisted he was clinically depressed and had only spent the money
quickly so he would have no alternative but to kill himself out of shame when
he was discovered. But last Thursday, the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal
ignored his pleas to be allowed to stay in the profession.
Hampstead & Highgate Expr, 15 May 2008

Burnley fraud lawyer ‘has lost everything’
A SOLICITOR who forged another lawyer's signature on a legal document has
been thrown out of the profession. Philip Lowe, 42, formerly of Low Bank,
Burnley, signed papers so the estate of a client could be handled quickly, the
Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal heard. When inspectors raided his firm they
found he had been using client's money for his own benefit by keeping the cash
in his own bank account. Lowe, who, the hearing was told, now sold paint for a
living, tried to stage a cover up by wrongly billing clients to balance his books.
He has now lost his family, his firm and his home because of his dishonesty, the
hearing was told. Lowe who ran his own firm in Main Street, Cross Hills, Keig-hley,
was cleared of fraud at a Bradford Crown Court trial but admitted using a false
ins-trument and was fined £515. Ian Ryan, for the Law Society, told the hearing
investigators found a £35,332 black hole' in Lowe''s books when they raided the
firm on July 4 2005. Money which should have been paid into the client account
had been deposited in the firm's account which were controlled solely by Lowe.
Burnley Citizen, 01 May 2008

Hetherington: Fox Hayes, Abbey, Square Mile
Mrs K.C. writes: I read in Financial Mail some time ago the result of the Financial
Services & Markets Tribunal hearing about solicitor Fox Hayes, but there has
been no further news. I foolishly invested practically all my money, about £60,000,
in shares sold by brokers represented by Fox Hayes. I have recovered only £5,000.
This has gone on for so long, I'm now almost giving up. I will be 93 in June.

"Leeds solicitor Fox Hayes, which is licensed as an investment adviser by the
Financial Services Authority, stupidly and corruptly teamed up with a network
of crooked boiler room share peddlers. Throughout 2003 and 2004, Financial
Mail repeatedly warned that the firm was fronting for known tricksters posing
as stockbrokers based in Spain. Privately, I gave full details to Fox Hayes,
proving that it was lending its name to mailshots from firms run by people
who would never in a million years get a licence from the FSA, who did not
have a licence from Spain's financial watchdog, and who were selling shares
so rotten that I'm surprised anyone gave you as much as £5,000 for them...
"It cannot be right that a firm or an individual can commit an offence, pay a
fine that is less than victims have actually lost and then carry on as if nothing
has happened."
This is Money, 13 Apr

Lawyer who killed his wife is released after just two years - and inherits
£950,000 from her estate
A wealthy lawyer who killed his wife after she had an affair is set to inherit
nearly £1million from her will after being freed from jail. Christopher Lumsden,
54, was said to have "snapped" after his wife Alison, 53, announced she was
leaving him for a family friend. He attacked her at their £1.4million mansion,
slashing her on the face and neck with a knife so badly a pathologist could not
count the number of wounds she had suffered.
This is London, 08 Apr 2008

Solicitor guilty of fraud jailed
A solicitor who stole more than £1m from a disabled client has been jailed for 10
years at Machester Crown Court. Thomas McGoldrick, 59, of Faulkners Lane,
Mobberley, Cheshire, lived a life of "extravagance" while taking the money from
client Keith Anderson. Mr Anderson, 45, from Croydon, had been awarded £1.8m
after he was severely injured in a road crash. Belfast-born McGoldrick was
convicted of 59 counts of fraud in February and was sentenced on Monday.
He was £1.4m in debt when his firm, who had practices called McGoldricks in
Altrincham, Greater Manchester and Croydon, took on Mr Anderson's case.
BBC, 08 Apr 2008

Fiddling solicitor struck off
A SOLICITOR who took money from the dead for work he had not carried out
has been thrown out of the profession. Christopher Dudzinski, 49, of Dudzinski
and Partners, Butts Court, Leeds, claimed thousands of pounds from the estates
of late clients and ploughed the cash into his firm. Investigators found he also told
customers he was investing their money when in fact it was being kept in the firm's
accounts. Financial records were not properly written up and an investigation in 2006
revealed a £25,975 'black hole' in the client accounts. Dudzinski accepted he withdrew
clients' money before he billed them for his work, the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal
in London heard. "A large part of the shortfall, £21,230, was in respect of costs
transferred from client to office account in circumstances where bills had not been
delivered to the client," said Jonathan Goodwin, for the Solicitors' Disciplinary
Authority. Dudzinski was acting for the executors of a will when he took £2,350
from the estate of a dead man after his affairs had been completed. When questioned,
the lawyer said he thought he deserved more for the work done previously.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 01 Apr 2008

Seven years jail for lawyer who siphoned £900,000 from wills to feather his nest
A crooked lawyer has been jailed for seven years after he looted £900,000 from
wills and cash meant for charity so he could send his children to public school,
stock up with vintage wines and drive a classic sports car. In the course of 28
years, Michael Wright, now 66, doubled or trebled his actual salary. He set up
seven false identities to channel the money from wills and had the power to sign
cheques paying legacies to their bank accounts. When families complained or
became suspicious he simply stole from other estates to pay them what they
were owed, Exeter Crown Court was told. The lawyer, officially on £29,000 a
year, was caught when his employers, solicitors Harold Mitchelmore of Newton
Abbot, Devon, introduced a new audit system.
Daily Mail, 20 Mar 2008

Couple stripped of £5million
A Weybridge solicitor and his wife have been stripped of £5.3million of criminal
assets hidden overseas. The Assets Recovery Agency was granted a High Court
order to take the money from John and Susan Ann Szepietowski of Ashford House,
Four Winds Park, St George's Hill, following an investigation prompted by a
separate drugs trafficking and money laundering probe by Surrey Police. The
ARA alleged the Szepietowskis had amassed a large property portfolio through
fraudulent mortgage claims and the laundering of rental income through offshore
accounts. It also alleged that the Szepietowskis benefited from a phoenix fraud
scam, involving the publishing of adult magazines, and that their lavish lifestyle
greatly exceeded their known legitimate income. Solicitor Mr Szepietowski and
his former building society manager wife entered negotiations with the ARA in
October last year.
Wimbledon Guardian, 17 Mar 2008

Crooked veteran solicitor struck off
A CROOKED solicitor took almost £100,000 from bereaved clients and used the
cash to pay her tax bill, a hearing was told. University of Huddersfield law
lecturer Lorraine Miers, 49, blamed her cheating husband for financial difficulties
when he had an affair with her student, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard.
Yesterday she was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 14 Mar 2008

McGoldrick investigated before
A LAWYER who stole more than £1m from a disabled man to feed his champagne
lifestyle was investigated for financial irregularities more than ten years ago, the
M.E.N. reveal. `Bent' solicitor Thomas McGoldrick, 59, was described by police
as `shameless, selfish, greedy and calculating' after being found guilty of false
accounting, money laundering, forgery and obtaining pecuniary advantage by
deception. He stole the money from Keith Anderson who had been awarded
£1.8 million damages as a result of a road accident which left him paralysed
from the chest down. And McGoldrick, who lives in a luxury home in
Mobberley, Cheshire, was only caught when Mr Anderson had £200 left and
the Law Society called in the police to investigate...In 1997 he was criticised
by the Law Society after more than £40,000 went missing from a client's
account.This was followed by a series of other misdemeanours relating to
his accounts and the financial management of his firm, but despite serious
concerns, the Law Society allowed him to continue practising as a lawyer
until 2004. (The Law Society is no more than a corrupt gangsters' union.UJ)
Manchester Evening News, 23 Feb 2008