News - File sharing law specialist referred to disciplinary tribunal

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ACS Law Solicitors is having its tactic of sending letters to suspected file sharers investigated.

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Read more.

Good. It's little more than an extortion tactic.

To quote someone a little more eloquent than me, Lord Lucas of Crudwell and Dingwall(yes that is his real name);

"In a civil procedure on a technical matter, it amounts to blackmail. The cost of defending one of these things is reckoned to be £10,000. You can get away with asking for £500 or £1,000 and be paid on most occasions without any effort having to be made to really establish guilt. It is straightforward legal blackmail."

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It doesn't look like we should be holding our breath for the SDT to actually do anything, however. Which? revealed that it complained about another law firm - Davenport Lyons - to the SRA and it finally got round to referring it to the SDT this March. Since then however, nothing seems to have been done.

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I'm not surprised the SRA and SDT appear to have done very little. It seems that they, and the Law Society, regard their purpose is to protect solicitors and lawyers from the public rather than the other way round.

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Originally Posted by M0nkeyb0Y

I'm not surprised the SRA and SDT appear to have done very little. It seems that they, and the Law Society, regard their purpose is to protect solicitors and lawyers from the public rather than the other way round.

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You made me realise I left a detail out of that paragraph - the complaint was made in 2008. Updated.

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Originally Posted by Scott B

You made me realise I left a detail out of that paragraph - the complaint was made in 2008. Updated.

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In that case, it's ridiculous that such a thing has taken so long just to be referred - you'd think that actual action would have been taken long before now too.

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Originally Posted by M0nkeyb0Y

I'm not surprised the SRA and SDT appear to have done very little. It seems that they, and the Law Society, regard their purpose is to protect solicitors and lawyers from the public rather than the other way round.

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*chuckle*

As a solicitor, mate, I can inform you that we all regard the Law Society as bloated, ineffective and a waste of money.

Unfortunately, all three of them (very much like the CPS, in fact) are staffed by fairly poorly paid people with massive workloads and morale through the floor. So they don't tend to be hyper-efficient. However, on the other hand, no solicitor being investigated by the SDT thinks that they are on their side.

And while some of us CLEARLY need hauling over the coals, some of us are OK. Promise ;)

DL/ACS = hospital chasers of the entertainment copyright world

As much as I hate these kind of people, I do feel the need to agree with Shooty, solicitor's have pulled my rear out of the fire a couple of times. Some even did a great impression of a human being. :P

Seriously though, these people are just criminals with law degrees and business cards, and thankfully are in the minority.

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Originally Posted by M0nkeyb0Y

I'm not surprised the SRA and SDT appear to have done very little. It seems that they, and the Law Society, regard their purpose is to protect solicitors and lawyers from the public rather than the other way round.

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BUT.... since the Law society's regulatory function was split off into the SRA, the Law Society is in theory supposed to be on the Lawyer's side. They're now the equivalent of a trade union. Think BMA rather than GMC.

(the fact that they manage to do a pretty half arsed job is another matter entirely...)

& I agree with Shooty, the SRA do a good job of appearing to be anything but on the lawyer's side from the solicitor's view of things, albeit they're slow and inefficient at the same time.

As for the topic in question, I for one have not seen any formally reported cases where someone has been actually held liable for damages for p2p copyright infringement.

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Originally Posted by chuckskull

Some even did a great impression of a human being. :P.

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Hey, I cried at the end of Shawshank, the Lake House AND Disney Pixar Cars.

Turing test? BRING IT ON.

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Originally Posted by Shooty*

*chuckle*

As a solicitor, mate, I can inform you that we all regard the Law Society as bloated, ineffective and a waste of money.

Unfortunately, all three of them (very much like the CPS, in fact) are staffed by fairly poorly paid people with massive workloads and morale through the floor. So they don't tend to be hyper-efficient. However, on the other hand, no solicitor being investigated by the SDT thinks that they are on their side.

And while some of us CLEARLY need hauling over the coals, some of us are OK. Promise ;)

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:Oops:

Sorry pal - wasn't trying to tar you all with the same brush

Hey, no worries. :)