We are used to receiving obnoxious and greatly exaggerated letters from firms of solicitors – but one in particular got us rather irked.
The repeated allegation was that our client had “fraudulently” misrepresented a car and that doing so was a criminal offence.
So we did our own research on the writer of that letter.
We looked on the firm’s website and note that he was a “trainee” solicitor. He was not showing up on the Law Society’s website as being a qualified solicitor. We noted also that the individual was also a local councillor. More research found the council of which he had been elected. He sat on the council’s “Standards” committee.
We obtained, online, his formal Declaration of Interests to that council. And lo and behold – he had declared himself to be a “Solicitor”!
Now anyone in the legal profession knows, it is a very serious matter to use the title of “solicitor” unless both qualified and authorised by the Law Society. The word is a “reserved” or “protected” job title. Indeed, a large number of job titles can only be used if strict qualification or licensing criteria are met.
And so we put it to the individual, that rather than accuse our client of fraudulent misrepresentation, he consider his own such misrepresentation. We asked the question why he should not be reported to the Law Society, the Chief Executive of his council, his political leader and the press?
Another of his colleagues is now handling the dispute whilst his employers have “began the reporting process”. We will ensure he is held to account. He is a member of the Council’s “Standards” Committee so needs to set his own standards slightly above outright lies.
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