Bolton law firm guilty of ‘gross failures’

A Bolton solicitors’ practice was guilty of “gross failures” in handling a personal injury claim in which key documents were found to contain forged signatures.

The conduct of Asons Solicitors – shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority earlier this year – was described as “improper, unreasonable and negligent” after a judge hear from the firm had handled a claim made to insurer LV= without verifying the claimant was genuinely providing instructions.

In addition, the judge found evidence that Asons was “guilty of backdating (falsifying) correspondence to disguise non-compliance with court timetabling”.

At the Nottingham Crown Court five-day trial, Judge Godsmark QC also ruled that Haroon Karim, director of the claims Management company which had referred the claim to Asons, was guilty of deliberately forging the claimants signature on a number of documents.

As a result, the judge ruled both parties were jointly liable to pay LV=’s costs of defending the action, which are estimated to be in the region of £40,000.

During the trial, the judge found a range of inconsistencies in Asons’ file, expressing “grave reservations as to whether the dates on file copy letters can be relied upon”, and photocopies of documents in which the claimants signature had potentially been cut and pasted.

The judge further found no evidence of any correspondence between Asons and the whiplash claimant Nitan Trehan following an accident in Nottingham in July, 2012; no signed funding agreement; and not evidence Asons had taken any steps to confirm the identity of their supposed client, in breach of anti-money laundering regulations.

Although Judge Godsmark found Asons had been decived by Haroon Karim, he condemned the firm for its “gross failure” to carry out basic identity checks on its client and failing to have direct contact with him.

In his ruling, he said: “That a solicitors practice can purport to act for a client they have never met or had direct contact with is startling.

“That those solicitors feel able to commence litigation on behalf of an individual they have never met or had direct with, without any funding arrangement in place, is frankly appalling.

“When I add to that the manner in which the litigation was pursued with falsification of the dates of letters (also to deceive) the picture is deeply disturbing.”

Ronan McCann, partner at Horwich Farrelly, which represented LV=, said: “This ruling highlights the shoddy practices of Asons Solicitors who appeared to make numerous attempts to conceal their previously negligent handling of the claim.

“The ruling that Haroon Karim forged signatures on documents and is jointly liable to pay LV=’s costs sends a clear message to professional enablers that insurers will not stop in their efforts to stamp out fraudulent claims”.

Clare Lunn, director of fraud LV= General Insuranc,e said: “This is a significant win. For too long corrupt lawyers, medical experts and other professional enablers have tried to evade justice by hiding behind a veneer of respectability.

“LV= will now recover our costs from Asons Solicitors and Mr Karim and not the innocent third party, who could easily have been burdened with the cost allowing Asons and Karim to walk away scot free.

“As an industry we need to continue to take a tough stance against such conduct which will act as a deterrent to stop such practices.”

Whilst Accident Claims Assistant Ltd was dissolved in 2013, Haroon Karim remains a director of a credit hire company, Easy Go Hire Ltd, which is still trading.

Asons was the law firm recently at the centre of a major row in Bolton over a £300,000 grant from the town’s council after it moved into the former offices of The Bolton News on Churchgate.

In March, the law firm rebranded to Coops Law and the £300,000 grant was later personally repaid by director Kamran Akram.

Coops Law has since been shut down by the SRA.