CORNERSTONES SOLICITORS LIMITED
REGULATORY SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
1. Fiasal Aslam (FA) and Levent Halil Chetinkaya (LHC) directors (“the Directors”) in Cornerstones Solicitors Limited (“the Company”) of 76 Wood Street, London, E17 3HX agree to the following outcome of the investigation into their professional conduct under reference REG/42342-2009.
Background
2. Following an investigation, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) produced a Report dated 13 May 2009 (“the Report”).
3. The Report identified that the company had provided clients with misleading costs information by showing in Quotations and Bills of Costs items as disbursements when they should have been included as profit costs. The items included a telegraphic transfer fee of £30 plus VAT when the actual charge made to the company by the bank was £15, a charge for “Law Society Indemnity”, “SDLT completion fee” and “telephone, faxing and posting fee”. The Report stated that from 1 May 2008 to 31 January 2009 the firm had profited by representing profit costs to clients as disbursements in the sum of £13,919.66.
Findings
4. The Directors make and the SRA accepts the following admissions:-
a) They failed to act in their clients' best interest contrary to Rule 1 of the Solicitors' Code of Conduct 2007 in that they charged clients £30 plus VAT for telegraphic transfer fees when the actual cost made by their bankers for each bank transfer was £15.
b) They provided misleading and inaccurate costs information to clients in breach of Rule 1, 2, 7 and 10 of the Solicitors' Code of Conduct 2007 in that the firm's quotations and invoices referred to the above mentioned items at paragraph 3 as disbursements when they were properly profit costs.
Undertakings
5. The directors undertake that they will:-
a) Within 4 months of this agreement, review all matters where disbursements should have properly been part of the profit costs for a 2 year period prior to the rectification of the costs information provided to clients on the 9 March 2009 and make all reasonable efforts to trace and contact all clients charged with those items.
b) Within 6 months of the date of this agreement, reimburse to all traced clients, all amounts due to those clients in respect of items wrongly charged as disbursements.
c) As a minimum, take the following steps to trace the affected clients and keep the SRA informed :
(i) Write to clients in the first instance at their last known and/or recorded address, informing them that the Firm may owe them money and requesting a response within 14 days;
(ii) If no response is received within that period, write a second letter to affected clients, providing a further 14 days for response;
(iii) Provide the SRA with a monthly update of progress to include a list of all clients' names and addresses and amounts reimbursed, and/or such other information and documentation that the SRA may require from time to time.
(d) Within 6 months of this agreement, submit to the SRA a list of all untraced clients, together with a request for authorisation to pay the balance relating to those untraced clients to a charity of the Directors' choice.
(e) Within one month of receiving the SRA's authorisation, pay the outstanding balance to a charity of their choice and provide the SRA with written evidence to that effect.
(f) Make any further amendments to their client care information/invoices in respect to costs as necessary to ensure compliance with the Solicitors' Code of Conduct 2007.
Mitigation
6. During the course of the investigation, the Directors confirmed that they had taken independent advice from the SRA's Professional Ethics Department and that, as a consequence of that advice, had revised the Terms and Conditions of trade and had implemented revised Quotations and Bills of Costs. The directors also confirmed in their written explanation to the SRA, that upon notification in the investigation of the apparent discrepancy correspondence was sent with a revised quote to each current client.
Responsibility for professional conduct
7. As the Directors have accepted the above breaches and have agreed to repay improper charges to those clients whom they are able to identify within the period stipulated above, an outcome that involves full and prompt restitution to clients and the admissions set out in paragraph 4 above, is proportionate in all the circumstances.
8. The Directors are therefore each severely reprimanded for the breaches identified in paragraph 4 above.
9. The Directors agree that this outcome will be published by the SRA and that it may also be disclosed to any person upon request or otherwise.
10. The Directors agree to pay the costs of the investigation in the sum of £6,959.00 inclusive of VAT and disbursements within 14 days of finalisation of this agreement.
11. The Directors agree they will not act in any way inconsistent with this agreement by, for example, denying the misconduct admitted in paragraph 4 above.
12. If the undertaking(s) contained in paragraph 5 above or any other terms of this agreement are not complied with within the time limits agreed, or if any of the directors act in any way inconsistently with this agreement, the Directors accept that the matter could be referred back to an Adjudicator for consideration, including referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on the original facts and allegations and on the basis that the director's failure to comply constitutes a breach of Rule 1 of the Solicitors Code of Conduct 2007
Dated this 15 day of June 2010
Carol Westrop
Head of Legal Policy
For the Solicitors Regulation Authority
Suzanne Jackson - Advocate - Solicitors Regulation Authority
Faisal Aslam
Levent Halil Chetinkaya