Scots Law News......

11th Aug - Brodies LLP are accused by yet another client of gross overcharging. The notorious Edinburgh legal gangsters are said to have milked Elaine Grossart, ex-wife of Hamish Grossart, a member of the Grossart banking dynasty for every single penny they could get. When she objected to Brodies’ extortionate fees – thought to amount to MANY TENS of THOUSANDS of POUNDS - they threatened to sue her. And sue her they did – for a pathetic 750 pounds! SACL can’t help but wonder if Ms Grossart got a fair divorce settlement. We say this because certain partners in this crooked law firm are closely connected to the secretive Speculative Society of Edinburgh, a shadowy group of individuals, dominated by lawyers and judges of which her ex-husband is a long-standing member. CLICK HERE to read a newspaper article about Grossart's divorce.

27th Jun - Notoriously crooked Aberdeen solicitor DANNY COHEN is once again found guilty of professional misconduct. Amazingly, he avoids being struck off. Readers may remember a case from March 2009 (see below) where Lord Bracadale believed crooked Cohen when he denied fabricating a letter in order to deceive two clients. More details to follow....

26th Jun - ***Some English and American Legal News***

English judge GERALD PRICE QC thought nothing of allowing his 250-pounds-a-day rent boy to sit on the bench in court trials he presided over. Married Price, who stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a Tory candidate in three general elections, showed the same level of contempt for his judicial code of conduct as that shown by his Scottish legal counterparts, week in week out. As his rent boy lover aptly pointed out: "His business was truth but he lived a lie. He was at real risk of being blackmailed. Imagine the power a criminal could wield over a judge with info like this." Click Here to read the News of the World article (and some of the readers' comments are well worth a read also!)

Barking Mad in Florida

If an accused person in Scotland barks or shouts at a judge during a bail hearing, the alleged perpetrator would find himself held in contempt of court, with bail denied. In the State of Florida however, the judges are so polite they just call the would-be perp SIR! Click Here for the video...

8th Jun - SPINELESS SHERIFF ALISTAIR NOBLE has hit the headlines once again. Last week he sentenced controversial paralegal Jim McDonald to a whopping ONE-YEAR jail time for "providing free legal advice”, as revealed by McDonald's own lawyers. So who complained about his free advice? Perhaps those who received it? Apparently not. According to The Scotsman "prosecutors launched an investigation after worried members of the legal community complained about him”!

Visitors to this website will remember Sheriff Noble’s cowardly leniency when he sentenced paedophile lawyer IAN DONNELLY to just 180 hours community service, after the Glasgow solicitor was caught trying to arrange an orgy with a child and for being in possession of child porn. So the deranged lawyer paedophile gets community service - meanwhile the guy who provides FREE legal advice receives serious jail time. Is there any justice left in Scotland?

It speaks volumes for Scotland’s “legal community” in that they appear more concerned about protecting their own legal cartel than they are about crackpot sheriffs who sentence paedophile lawyers to community service.

25th May - SIR MENZIES CAMPBELL QC - MEMBER OF THE FACULTY OF ADVOCATES - Spent nearly £10,000 refurbishing his central London flat. Announced he will pay back £1,500 cost of interior designer. MICHAEL ANCRAM QC - MEMBER OF THE FACULTY OF ADVOCATES - Claimed more than £14,000 a year for second homes despite property portfolio worth £8m. Admits claim for swimming-pool maintenance was wrong and has repaid cash but insists he did not claim for anything that enhanced the property. MARK LAZAROWICZ - MEMBER OF THE FACULTY OF ADVOCATES - Claimed more than £5,000 on 'legal and professional fees'. DOUGLAS ALEXANDER - MEMBER OF THE LAW SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND - Having spent £30,000 on home, demanded more cash after "under-insured" property was damaged by fire. His MSP sister, Wendy, resigned as Scottish Labour Leader following the WENDYGATE expenses scandal in 2008. ALISTAIR DARLING - MEMBER OF THE FACULTY OF ADVOCATES - Who would have thought our lawyer Chancellor had time to operate a property dealing sideline by "flipping" his registered homes and claiming thousands of pounds of taxpayers' cash? Incredibly, Darling is someone who was (and still is?) a fervent supporter of the Trotskyite Fourth International.

Interior Designers and expense forms were the last thing on Menzies' mind in 1960! That's because he led a clean-living lifestyle with girlfriend Doris, a Glasgow Uni medical student. They studied hard during the week and partied hard at the weekend along with close friends Una Cameron (medical student) and her boyfriend Harry Lloyd (also a medical student and father of this Webmaster). Back then Campbell was a principled individual who would have been genuinely horrified at the recent expense claims by MPs and their brazen attempts to conceal those claims from the paying public.

20th May - Legal Aid Chief DOUGLAS HAGGARTY was arrested in public toilets at the St Enoch Centre, Glasgow, along with a teenage rent boy. The Procurator Fiscal initially instigated summary court proceedings against this pervert - but for reasons still unknown - the PF capitulated and offered the beast a 'direct measure' instead. This usually means a paltry fine (60 pounds or so) or a letter of warning about future conduct, on the basis that the perpetrator admits his guilt. So Haggarty will no doubt be extremely grateful to his brother lawyers at COPFS (Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Office) for saving his sick behind from the the humiliation and serious consequences of a formal criminal court hearing.

The Beast of St Enoch now joins a long list of lawyers who've been protected from the consequences of serious criminal misconduct. Examples of cases where the Crown was instrumental in Defeating the Ends of Justice include: Senior Procurator Fiscal STUART MACFARLANE, who was charged with indecency AND police assault after being caught with a prostitute in Glasgow city centre. The Crown dropped the case because MacFarlane claimed to be suffering from a 'mental illness' (common criminals take note and see how successful that ploy is). Another case involved TOM MURRAY, a notoriously crooked lawyer, who was protected from prosecution at the High Court on serious fraud charges. So will the Law Society will now step in and prosecute Haggarty for bringing the profession into disrepute? Watch this space....

26th Apr - EDWARD FENNELL, a senior legal correspondent at The Times, claimed in an article last week that he couldn't locate this website after receiving a tip- off from a reader that he would find "lots of juicy, scandalous information". According to Fennell, he was misdirected to www.SACL.org, which is a website for the Saskatchewan Association for Community Living! As our regular visitors are well aware this website is in fact currently hosted on www.sacl.org.uk. That's DOT INFO - not DOT ORG.

Any journalist worth his salt would have Googled "SACL" or "Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers" and perhaps been drawn to No 1 which is, quite obviously, this website. The clue is in the title: "Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers - Exposing Endemic Scottish Legal Corruption".

We don't expect this Muppet Newsman to print a correction next week because legal journalists, as with their lawyer counterparts, are loath to accept any form of responsibility for misleading those trusting souls who read what they write. So Edward, what do you think of the information on here - juicy or what?

25th Apr - ++++Some breaking news++++ SACL predict that an Aberdeenshire Sheriff will resign in disgrace in the near future.

24th Apr - Both were high flyers at the top of their respective professions and both recently resigned in disgrace. Sir Fred Goodwin escaped with 700k+ a year - but lifelong pal Douglas Mill, who earned a reputed 140k per year at the Law Society, resigned with a comparative pittance and struggled for many months to find to find a job. The University of Glasgow's "School of Law" came to his rescue and offered this crook the post of "Director of Professional Legal Practice".

But how many of the 21,000 staff and students are aware that John Swinney MSP accused Mill of colluding with the Master Policy brokers to influence the outcome of a professional negligence claim? Probably only a handful. That's all set to change though and it will only take about six mouse clicks. Click Here to watch the video and Click Here to read the actual memo referred to by John Swinney in the video.

5th Apr - "No child should have to see their mother pouring with blood from a blow their father has struck. It was a total nightmare." - Harriet Lothian

The News of the World reveal more details about Sheriff Lothian's deviant behaviour. Shame on the Herald and Scotsman newspapers for only publishing articles that shine a positive light on their cronies and backers in the legal profession.

SACL has known about Lothian's sexual proclivities for years. Interestingly, he knew this when he sat in judgment on a legal case involving SACL - but he refused to declare an interest and promptly ruled against us!

2nd Apr - Brodies Solicitors LLP complain to YouTube about a video posting in which SACL founder Stuart Usher names the partners at the heart of the Usher Scam. Brodies ought to focus their threatening efforts and financial clout on Google and Yahoo, as both still rank this website No2 in searches for their so-called legal "business". Better still, why not raise a legal action in the Court of Session against Mr Usher and this Webmaster?

The rest of the legal profession should take note. A long-term aim of this website is be highly-ranked for all words and phrases that relate to Scots Law and the legal profession in general.

6th Mar - David Lyons, a long-serving law society council member and one of the most crooked lawyers in the entire country, narrowly escapes being struck off - for the THIRD TIME in recent years. Last month Lyons, along with another partner at his law firm, was found guilty of professional misconduct in respect of his firm's repeated breaches of strict accounting and money laundering regulations. He was also found guilty of hampering the investigation into "financial irregularities" at his law firm. He was fined 10,000 pounds - but wasn't struck off. SACL can reveal that this is not the first time Lyons has attempted to escape professional justice. On two other occasions he either hampered or refused to co-operate with the investigation into his misconduct. Just what exactly is the SSDT playing at by allowing Lyons to continue to work as a solicitor?

5th Mar - Lord Bracadale prefers the evidence of notoriously crooked Aberdeen lawyer, Danny Cohen, to that of his former client. Cohen was previously found guilty of serious professional misconduct and fined 5,000 pounds in respect of a mortgage scam - but amazingly, as with most crooked lawyers you'll read about on this website, he somehow managed to avoid being struck off.

Cohen was giving evidence in a legal case involving his former client, and it was during this evidence that he was accused of faking a letter in order to deceive two clients. Cohen denied faking the letter and the judge believed him. This is what Lord Bracadale had to say:

"I considered Mr Cohen's reaction of outrage to the suggestion that he had sent the letter without the instructions of Mr Keane was genuine."

Is this judge stupid? SACL would like to remind Lord Bracadale of the words of the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) when they found Danny Cohen guilty of serious professional misconduct:

"[COHEN] deliberately mis-stated the position in his Report on Title
in the expectation that the Building Society would look favourably on an application about which they might otherwise have had reservations." page 11 of the SSDT findings

This is a lawyer who thinks absolutely NOTHING of lying to a Building Society in order to scam them out of THOUSANDS of POUNDS. So because Danny Cohen stamps his little foot up and down in the witness box, the judge believes him. SACL would like to warn Lord Bracadale and any current or prospective clients that Danny Cohen will lie anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

4th Mar - Anyone require advice on how to attempt to defeat the ends of justice and get away with it? Step forward solicitor advocates David McGlashan and Gerry Brown CBE. Both are senior partners in Glasgow law firm LIVINGSTONE BROWN and three Appeal Court judges SLAMMED them for "OBSTRUCTING" an appeal by a former client who had accused them of defective representation. Any ordinary citizen who "obstructs" Scotland's highest criminal court, especially for self-protective reasons, would find themselves behind bars sharpish. Not these guys though. Instead, they escape with a very public telling off from Lords Gill, Osbourne and Nimmo Smith. So, for what it's worth, here's what the three judges had to say:

"On 2 May 2007, during the course of the first hearing, we ordered Livingstone Brown, Mr Brown and Mr McSherry to produce their case papers relating to the trial and ordered Livingstone Brown to produce their legal aid accounts. LIVINGSTONE BROWN FAILED TO OBTEMPER THIS ORDER. They produced certain documents shortly before the hearing was resumed, but these did not include their legal aid account. It was not until the fifth day of the resumed hearing that Mr McGlashan handed it over. I consider that in these respects Mr McGlashan has been discourteous and obstructive......I regret to say that Mr McGlashan was not a credible or satisfactory witness. When questioned about certain matters that seemed not to reflect well on Livingstone Brown, he displayed studied unconcern. He replied unconvincingly to numerous questions by saying either that he did not know or that he could not remember. He appeared to resent being questioned at all. I DO NOT BELIEVE HIS EVIDENCE that he discussed with the appellant the option of his being defended by counsel." - Court of Appeal (Lord Gill)

BUT THE JUDGES WEREN'T FINISHED AT THAT. Incredibly, they went on to slate Brown for leaving his client in the lurch to face a murder charge, while he took a little jaunt to London on behalf of the Law Society of Scotland to bully UK politicians into releasing more legal aid cash.

"Mr Brown chose to absent himself on Law Society business. This too was a dereliction of his duty to his client" - Court of Appeal

SACL would like to place on record that Gerry Brown CBE, in his capacity as a long-standing law society council member, has been actively involved in defeating the ends of professional justice for YEARS. Incredible as this may seem, the Scottish Parliament have allowed the Brown and his crooked cohorts at the law society to continue to investigate complaints against lawyers!

SACL can also reveal that the current Law Society of Scotland president-elect, Ian Smart, was found guilty of "unsatisfactory conduct" in respect of his failure to comply witht a court order - just like his crooked colleague Brown. With people like Smart, Lyons, Keegan, Brown, Banski et al working on the Law Society Council is it any wonder the Society fails in its statutory duty to protect the public from crooked lawyers?

12th Jan - SACL's Lockerbie Trial page is now up and running. Many have a view on Megrahi's guilt or innocence - most however haven't had a chance to read the actual judgment. You can do so by Clicking Here.

11th Jan - SACL receive yet more information on the disgusting activities of Sheriff Andrew Lothian, who resigned in disgrace last year.

Click Here for our 2008 News Archive

Scots Law links will appear here shortly....

References to Scottish legal links

• Scottish Court Service Website Daily court business in Scottish sheriff and high courts, and Scots case law also. The Scottish Court Service was behind a cowardly attempt to shutdown this website, in its entirety.
• Law Society of Scotland The Law Society of Scotland cannot keep themselves away from this website. Not former Chief Executive Douglas Mill though, as he's been kicked out the Brownies.
• Faculty of Advocates The Faculty of Advocates is a closed shop.
• Edinburgh Law School Information about law degrees, public lectures, research and publications.
• Scottish Law Commission The Scottish Law Commission is in charge of proposals for law reform in Scotland. This site has many discussions of the law as it stands and proposals for reform.
• Scottish Legal Aid Board Material on how to get legal aid in Scotland.
• CjScotland CjScotland includes a daily blog of links to media and other sources of information on Scottish criminal justice, original articles, parliamentary updates and so on.
• Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission All cases accepted by the SCCRC are subjected to a robust and thoroughly impartial review before a decision on whether or not to refer to the High Court is taken.
• Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is responsible for the prosecution of crime in Scotland, the investigation of sudden or suspicious deaths and complaints against the police.