Solicitors Regulation Authority Reviews 

According to the SRA there has to be a pattern of dishonesty before considering a claim and the SRA say that “Brown Turner Ross” have no findings of integrity or dishonesty.
So If that is true why are their 2 company directors splashed all over news articles in 2018 and why is this not published by the SRA.
See legalfutures.co.uk
solicitor suspended for firms work for dodgy trust business

Tried to complain about a corrupt legal firm representing a clearly mentally ill stalker who's been harassing me, my father, my friends and more for over two years now. Clearly breaking the law, clearly using false identities, admitted he used a civil case against me as 'legal leverage' to scare me into dropping my police report. Everything, thousands of pages of evidence, videos of the man, threats of violence, every damn thing. I've had PTSD/panic attacks so long and they get triggered each time some SRA person comes back and tells me there's no evidence of any wrongdoing. The last person this dodgy firm's client went after lost his LIFE. How much more do they need? He says I'm 'next' on his agenda, he's splashed 600k on legal fees via them to harass me, he's got at least 6 more years in him I bet. I just want to live a life without this, it's destroyed everything, surely the SRA would see that this firm is exploiting a deranged, criminally insane man. It's unethical, he needs to be in a loony bin, not on the phone splashing hundreds of quid a time to a lawyer indulging his dark fantasies about wanting me to suffer for the rest of my life. It's sick. These people are sick. If I ever get the chance, I'm naming them personally. I'm so, so lucky I'm not dead. The only reason I'm still here is God and God alone, not the police, not the SRA, just God. Thank God I'm alive. If you could even call this a life. Disgusting.

Utter joke, failed to investigate the complaint, ignored documentary evidence as well as the solicitor's admission we were his client, and that the solicitor also advised the Courts we were their client, and it took 6 years of wasted time and effort, a total JOKE of an alleged "regulator". When i complained i was simply fobbed off. As crooked as the Solicitors they claim to "regulate". 40 pages of documentary evidence and the Solicitor admitted we was their client and we paid their bill, But despite this, the SRA claim we were not their client, so WHAT did they charge us for and what did we pay for ?????

Updated March 2023 - My complaint about the SRA service has been "investigated" but my complaint about the investigation of my previous solicitors Lester Aldridge LLP and the outcome (where they all were let off Scott Free) cannot be investigated again or looked into where there was no outcome for me to actually appeal. So I hit a wall complaining about their investigation. I was told however that my investigation took a long time (14 months) and I wasn't kept in the loop enough and was offered £75 compensation! So now I have had to raise another compliant about the original investigation separately. I raised a complaint about the SAR and the information they have shared (see below 5 piece Word Doc pieced together) and have again been told that they have sent me all they are legally obliged to. They are an absolute waste of time this joke of an authority. How it's being run the way it is, is beyond me. Protects the solicitors causing us all harm. The CEO Paul Philip should resign and the whole place needs investigating itself. I hope one day to read in the news that the place is being torn apart and investigated itself.

Updated Dec 23rd 2022 - Having put in a Subject Access Request to the SRA and waiting over a month for them to acknowledge my request at all, and respond, I have been sent a 5 page word document which has been patched together by the Compliance Team and Information Governance Officer Jack Baraczewski with some random notes that the Investigation Officers have taken in the last 14 months. They are pieced together in a new document, they are not original copies of notes, they are not dated or signed off, and I was not sent all of the information and data that the SRA hold on me and my complaint about the firm who failed me (Lester Aldridge LLP) in my Clinical Negligence Claim from 2018-2021. The document they have sent me is as incomplete and pointless as their whole investigation appears to have been and is testament to what a poor service this authority give to the public (us). I would suggest that anyone else who has a complaint about the SRA, as I do, and is suspicious of how they have handled your data and investigations/complaints about corrupt negligent solicitors, also put in their own Subject Access Requests as an attempt to finding out how their data and investigations were actually handled. You really couldn't make all this up at what a poor service this authority gives to us the public.

I have also put in a complaint to the Legal Services Board who oversee the SRA. Though I won't be holding my breath with them either, I expect they are all as bad as each other.

I add to the continuous stream of poor reviews about this "authority' who are funded by the very people they are meant to be regulating, so it is biased. I have waited 14 months for them while they investigated my solicitor who failed to protect my position for my clinical negligence claim against my GP. He was dismissed from the firm he worked for for his handling of mine and others claims and they reported him *themselves* to the SRA for concerns over another 16 or so claims they felt he had not met standards with. The SRA have spent 14 months investigating him and his 17 claims including mine and have said that as he has no record of previous issues and they dont consider his actions to be misconduct they'll be taking it no further. They didnt refer it over to the Legal Ombudsman when they started to realise all this (although I believe it is misconduct when it's 17 claims). Even my Professional Negligence solicitor cant quite believe it. Because of their long investigation which I was told I would have an update for in January 2022 I now cant go to the equally rubbish Legal Ombudsman and take my complaint there to try and get some compensation for what I lost out on due to his incompetence. So professional negligence is only way to seek some justice. My GP got away with breach of duty, my solicitor has so far got away with breach of duty. It is quite unbelievable that this solicitor funded corrupt authority is continually allowed to protect solicitors and let the rest of us down whilst paying their unqualified investigators salaries. Like everyone else has said its a shambles and it's about time we all stood up to them and made the government "investigate" them. Imagine if their office, files, cases, staff, were all investigated? I imagine that would be a can of worms the media and competent legal teams would be interested in. Where is Esther Rantzen when you need her?

Absolute shambles. A genuine evidenced serious complaint about a Solicitor just swept under the carpet. Waited months for them to act and then get a letter saying, no can do. Why and how do this organisation survive, so many negative reviews!

The SRA are not fit for purpose. Bear in mind that nearly all the SRA investigators are not legally qualified as you will find out by asking them for details of their legal qualifications which they will then refuse to provide claiming it is personal data. I previously made a complaint to the SRA about a senior solicitor who worked for a government department and who found that solicitor to have lied and that government department gave me an unserved written apology for that conduct which they recognised had caused me significant upset and distress. However on providing that written evidence to the SRA they stated there was no evidence of any professional misconduct on the part of that solicitor. I then complained to the then Legal Services Ombudsman about the SRA who twice sent the complaint back to the SRA to reinvestigate and both times the SRA repeated in a parrot like fashion that there was no evidence that the solicitor had done anything wrong. The Legal Services Ombudsman refused to refer it back to the SRA for a third time as she stated there was no point as she could only make recommendations and that the SRA were clearly not going to listen to her. That solicitor now sits as a Legally Qualified Chair on various police misconduct tribunals despite having been found by his now previous employers to have been thoroughly dishonest

I cannot believe I have waited 4 months to be told there is nothing dishonest about collusion between a solicitor and his client. They could have easily intervened. They think it is perfectly normal for a solicitor to pretend he has contacted a listed witness, throughout a court case, written that there has been confirmed contact with said witness and put his name on court documents without his knowledge or consent. Well, that is quite acceptable according to the SRA. Do they not think this is suspicious in itself? Not dishonest at all! Unless you have forensic evidence, they basically, don't give a f***. So, don't bother wasting your time writing and expecting them to do the right thing. They don't even make any phone calls to question the solicitor. Pathetic. Now I have to relay this to my daughter, who was at the brink of ending her life because this solicitor put her through hell during her self litigation! Nobody cares. I will now be going to my MP with this. Disgusting!

One thing you may be able to use to your advantage is if they potentially breach your human rights during any of your claim with them. Article 3, 10 especially. I believe you have a year to bring it to court.

They are considered a public authority where human rights are concerned.

Unfortunately my experience of the SRA mirrors all the others on here. It is hard to believe how anyone with a shred of self respect would continue working for this organisation. It is slow, incompetent and blatantly biased. It seems to work entirely on the premise that  'investigating a complaint' means firstly, ignoring that complaint as long as possible (months in my case in spite of stated time frames and reminders, perhaps in the hopes it will go away!). Secondly,when you do get your complaint considered, they simply ask the firm/individual who is the subject of the complaint for their version - and then present you with that version as if it were the gospel truth and automatically right. There is absolutely no independent questioning, investigation or consideration of evidence, or facts by the SRA themselves. They simply quote what the subject of your complaint has said as the final word on the matter.
In my own case, I listed and provided detailed instances and recorded evidence of contravention , by Graham Hughes of Brabners plc (much of which consisted of Mr Hughes's own written submissions), of several principles and guidelines outlined by the SRA on their own website. I was however told - without any independent investigation, analysis, justification or explanation whatsoever by the SRA and purely on the basis of denials by Mr Hughes  - that the SRA considered that 'there were no grounds for complaint'.
Even though I had been warned about the SRA, I was still shocked by their blatant disregard for the truth and standards in the legal profession. One of their stated principles involves maintaining public confidence in the legal profession, but mine has now reached rock bottom. I am sure this is the case with many others. Unscrupulous individuals and firms can act with impunity it seems and unless you have a lot of money to pay another solicitor there is no way of holding them to account.
I do firmly believe however that it's important to keep complaining to the SRA when we have negative experiences at the hands of some in the legal profession...and then to keep putting honest reviews here of how the SRA handles those complaints. Both to encourage others in a similar position but also because it is amounting now to a serious indictment, and body of evidence, of the shocking failure of the SRA. This is one way of holding them to account.

Don't be put off by SRA corruption. Refer any solicitor dishonesty claims to the Solicitors Indemnity Fund. If you read their Rules carefully SIF(2012) Rule 8.5, available on line, you will find that the indemnity includes dishonesty in some cases. See particularly Rule 9.3. Ask your solicitor for advice. Chances are he will not want to! Asking the President of the Law Society to appoint an arbitrator is a conflict of interest and the corruption extends to her as well. What hope do us lowly consumers have?

Unfortunately, this is one more negative review of the SRA that demonstrates what a complete waste of time and public resources it is. It seems that all these professional regulators do, is to cover for those they are meant to regulate which is against the public interest and undermines the justice system.

Ms Melanie Isherwood of Weightmans defended the NHS in court proceedings but deliberately manipulated court directions and Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) to obtain advantage and prevent a fair process from taking place. By adopting a creative litigation strategy and developing an array of procedural tactics plagued by misconduct and fraud, Ms Isherwood ensured due process did not happen. Ms Isherwood’s dishonesty and misconduct made it impossible for there to be a fair trial.
When evidence of this was submitted to the SRA to investigate in the public interest they refused to investigate... the SRA is not interested in allegations of fraud because it defends the fraudsters.

Melanie Isherwood has escaped prison and Weightmans has had their multi million pound contracts with the Government renewed.

You won’t get anywhere,a complete shame, don’t even bother going to the Legal Ombudsman. It’s best described as the “ old boys network” just looking after their own!

Absolutely a complete utter waste of time. This outfit should not be allowed to operate. I had lots of evidence of dishonesty with a large firm of solicitors. After initially losing the files in one of their portals we were told it would be best answered by the legal ombudsman.
I knew that the level of dishonesty was a case of for the SRA. The legal ombudsman was equally as useless and said it was a case for the SRA. I don’t think a professional person works in this organisation. I certainly did not come across one. They certainly seem like they do not want to Russel the feathers of a law firm. I have since read the other reviews and surprise everyone else has had terrible experiences just like we did.
When can this pile of ——- be shut down and a proper unit be set that is fit for purpose. SRA you are utterly useless and wasted a lot of our time, well done.

I complained about a solicitor who had clearly cheated in an exam/coursework situation. He even sent a WhatsApp admitting it and demanding money for his help. But the SRA threw the case out for lack of evidence. The case was handled by a so-called investigating officer who did zero investigating. The SRA claimed it needed more evidence (i.e. from the academic institution / examine body) which I as a third party was clearly incapable of getting, due to GDPR rules. Yet the SRA made no effort to obtain this evidence themselves. And so the solicitor carries on as an expensive City lawyer, without even a reprimand. There’s no point in complaining, because the SRA says its initial verdict will always stand.

Managed to take lying and incompetence to another level. Their staff have not even read the garbage that they put on their own website. If you actually believed their website they would have to dismiss all of their own staff and the arrogant, obnoxious half wit they pay to impartially agree with garbage they produce.

As per the Legal Ombudsman, they are a total waste of time and exist to protect that self-perpetuating body that call themselves Solicitors. Yes, there are some good Solicitors but too many that fall short get away with incompetence. I had a very incompetent family Solicitor (Richard Gabb in Shrewsbury) that has caused no end of stress and the SRA asked for the Legal Ombudsman report that I had received, only to lift from that and come up with exactly the same conclusion. But added a p.s. "Oh but we might have missed something so you can complain about us" .... knowing full well that I will be facing a brick wall!!!!!!!

Failed repeatedly to address professional misconduct and clear evidence of defamation, contempt of court, malfeaseance, collusion and complete disregard for the rule of law. Currently refusing to make a full disclosure.

Well if you have a solicitor who is corrupt and dodgy don't look at the SRA for support they are all cut from the same cloth not fit for purpose, one star is only to write this review the SRA is not goverment backed and get a levvy from solicitors to operate....get the picture

With evidence of a solicitor’s firm dishonesty, which contributed to the unnatural death of a vulnerable adult. Rather than conduct a credible investigation the SRA responded they had taken the assurances of the senior solicitor that the firm had not acted in bad faith.

No wonder the SRA receive the 1 star rating

If you told me that SRA stands for Sham Regulation Authority, I'd believe you, because I certainly don't believe that this organisation does anything to truly instil faith in the legal profession.

After my experience with the SRA, I've come to the conclusion that dishonest solicitors know that they get away with whatever they want because we dim-witted members of the public will have our legitimate and very obvious complaints dismissed with gaslighting or jargon.

After reading the reviews here i wrote to the CEO of SRA, Paul Philip and asked him to confirm if they protected their member firms or the public. I wrote three times, he refused to answer.

When SRA invited me to put in a complaint, i sent evidence showing what i believe to be a firm of solicitors not complying with court orders, and other multiple, evidenced concerns.

Their conclusion was not to investigate. This is what i expected, they wasted my time spent in carefully preparing the complaint and evidence and have probably provided it to the solicitors who have abused their fiduciary duty of care and refused to account for my fathers estate.

The SRA allow them to continue in their abuses. They wouldn't even investigate!