Law Society responds to Christopher Hales case

Commenting on the SSDT case that led to Christopher Hales being struck off as a solicitor, Lorna Jack, Chief Executive of the Law Society of Scotland said:

“Our financial compliance team carried out a routine inspection of the firm Grigor Hales of Gorgie Road, Edinburgh in 2011 and as a result of our findings, in order to protect the public, we prosecuted Christopher Hales before the independent Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) because we believed he had not met the required professional standards of conduct. The case was heard before the tribunal in May 2014 and he was struck off as a solicitor for failing to adhere to Law Society and Council of Mortgage Lender requirements in relation to a number of mortgage transactions.

“Where a solicitor is found guilty of misconduct, the SSDT has a range of sanctions at its disposal and can censure, fine, restrict or suspend a solicitor from practice. In the most serious cases it can strike them from the roll which means they can no longer practice as a solicitor.

“The SSDT published its findings relating to Christopher Hales on its website in June 2014. The SSDT only publishes the name of the solicitor.

“We publish SSDT findings in our Journal magazine and Journalonline.co.uk. We published an article on the findings of the Christopher Hales case in July 2014.

“If the Law Society has concerns about any potential criminal matter arising from a SSDT finding, it will refer the matter to the appropriate authorities. In the case of Christopher Hales, we first raised this informally with the Crown Office in December 2014. Our Guarantee Fund sub-committee referred it formally to the Crown Office in July 2015.”

ENDS                                                                              29 September 2015

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Journalists can contact Sarah Sutton sarahsutton@lawscot.org.uk 0131 476 8170 or Val McEwan valeriemcewan@lawscot.org.uk 0131 226 884