High Court rules Beresfords solicitors should be struck off

Two solicitors who handled almost 100,000 miners’ compensation claims today lost their appeal against being struck off for misconduct.

James Beresford and Douglas Smith, formerly partners at Doncaster firm Beresfords, had their appeal dismissed on all grounds by the High Court. They had been struck off following a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in December 2008.

Beresford and Smith earned millions of pounds from handling sick miners’ claims under the government’s coal health compensation scheme.

At the December 2008 hearing the SDT found that ‘there was no real evidence that the respondents or their staff properly discharged all their duties to the miners’. The SDT proved eight of 11 allegations against the pair.

In its judgment today the High Court said: ‘The [SDT] made against Beresfords a cumulative series of findings of very serious misconduct on a huge scale and in relation to thousands of vulnerable clients.’

The SDT had concluded that evidence given by Beresford and Smith was ‘not always believable’.

Solicitors Regulation Authority chief executive Antony Townsend said today of the case: ‘The SRA has vigorously pursued the solicitors who betrayed the trust placed in them by their clients in this case and other miners’ compensation cases. This has sent a clear message to firms and, with the work of the Legal Complaints Service, has contributed to millions of pounds being paid back to miners by solicitors – where possible voluntarily or by agreement.

‘This is a good result for consumers, and should serve as a reminder to solicitors of the importance of acting with integrity in the best interests of each client, and of promptly putting things right for clients where errors are discovered.’