"Blind Justice" Examines the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Turning a Blind Eye to Abuse by British Solicitors
In early March, having gotten involved with politicians (even top-level ministers) in pursuit of SLAPP reform, we set aside the series "Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence", knowing it would be more suitable to cover at a much later point. We have some jaw-dropping examples of how the SRA does not do actual regulation - to the point where its staff does not actual work and does not look into any evidence at all! Earlier this month the authoritative news site "Law Gazette" illuminated just how widespread this problem is. To quote portions from this article (dated this week):
Campaigners have called for the Solicitors Regulation Authority to publish data on closed cases, amid concern that potential horror stories are slipping through the net.The access to justice charity Blind Justice has published figures showing that there are thousands of cases shut down at assessment stage which then disappear from view.
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In 2023/24, the SRA received 11,852 reports about solicitors and closed 8,317 before any investigation began. Only 510 led to a regulatory finding, with nothing publicly disclosed or analysed about the remainder. Since 2017/18, the proportion of reports referred for investigation has fallen from around 53% to around 15%. The issue is likely to become more acute in the next year, when complaints are expected to rise and the SRA potentially relies on automation to filter out those that do not need further investigation.
A briefing prepared by Blind Justice sets out that the first point of call of the SRA complaints process is the Assessment and Early Resolution Team. The AERT test is whether the conduct, if proved, would amount to a breach of SRA rules; whether there is a realistic prospect of a regulatory finding; and whether an investigation would be proportionate. The report is closed if any of these three measures are not satisfied.
The Blind Justice report points out that the test is not published in operational detail and the SRA does not publish the internal guidance given to AERT officers on how to apply it.
‘There is no public record of how individual closure decisions are reached,’ it adds. ‘The system operates, in effect, as a closed process applying unpublished criteria to determine whether the public’s concerns about their solicitors deserve examination.’
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Blind Justice is a registered charity founded by Romain after he appeared as a litigant in person in court and started documenting the issues he was experiencing.
I too appeared "as a litigant in person in court"; I was told that everything had already been stacked against us, with the other side admitting it was funded by third parties to volley (soon) almost 100 kilograms of legal papers our way. Unless you're a millionaire, you cannot handle a case of this magnitude; this will never result in justice.
SRA is basically part of the SLAPP problem. The SRA's failure to regulate is an enablement of criminals who come from other continents to bully people who write about the crimes here in the UK. █