News: SRA Risk Outlook Spring Update published

[Legal Beagles]

Publication of the Spring Update to the Risk Outlook has been announced by Paul Philip, Chief Executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) today.

More...

[Amethyst]

Re: News: SRA Risk Outlook Spring Update published

Our Risk Outlook 2014 highlighted Failure to act with integrity or ethics: improper or abusive litigation as one of our priority risks. It is critical that solicitors manage this risk effectively if we are to ensure the legal services market operates in a way that serves the needs of consumers and the public interest.

Quite an interesting report actually

Many instances involve the solicitor unduly prioritising the client's interest over their other duties:

predatory litigation against third parties, where the solicitor, in the interest of the client, uses the threat of litigation to obtain settlement, often from several opponents, on cases that have no real merit, but where the cost of settlement is less than the financial, emotional or reputational cost of fighting the claim
abuse of the litigation process, where a solicitor uses the courts or general litigation process for purposes that are not directly connected to resolving a specific dispute, for example by incurring unmanageable costs for a commercial rival of a client
taking unfair advantage of a third party. For example, by exploiting another party's procedural errors or lack of legal knowledge in certain circumstances
misleading the court, where the solicitor knowingly or recklessly gives false information to the court or permits it to be given
excessive litigation, where the solicitor fails to consider their other duties when following a client's wish to pursue aggressive and, in particular, speculative litigation.

We have also seen instances where the solicitor fails to act in their client's interest:

predatory litigation, where clients are induced to proceed with litigation where there is little or no legal merit, or where litigation is not actually required
taking on weak or unwinnable cases, where a solicitor accepts instructions without making the potential costs and risks clear to the client. The most harmful examples are often predatory litigation schemes, which can become widespread and affect very large numbers of individuals.

There have been cases where the letter of claim included the threat to reveal publicly embarrassing information if the opponent failed to settle. Such schemes have been described in the House of Lords as "blackmail".⁸

8. Hansard, Lord Lucas, Column 1309, 2010