130 year-old law firm goes into administration
A 130 YEAR-OLD law firm, Raleys Solicitors, best known for processing miner’s compensation claims, has gone into administration.
The Barnsley-based business said it had appointed Nick Reed and Julian Pitts of Begbies Traynor as joint administrators on 11 March 2016.
Client matters were referred to Ison Harrison.
The firm’s website lists partners Carol Gill and John Welch as well as 14 legal specialists and 22 support staff in the business. ALl employees are said to have been made redundant.
In 2014, it emerged that Raleys had been dropped by the National Union of Mineworkers, having made £77m in taking miner’s health claims to court, according to the Daily Mail.
The relationship had ‘soured’ according to NUM after it emerged that solicitors at Raleys had called union members “thick”.
In 2009 the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority found the partners of the firm guilty of misconduct, having obtained loans of £4m from client the National Union of Mineworkers without ensuring the union took any independent legal advice.
At the time, Carol Gill, along with two others were fined £10,000, three other solicitors were suspended from practice for between six months and four years.
The firm was established by George Jackson Raley and his eldest son, William Emsley Raley, in 1883.
