Solicitor set-to gets personal as judge rules in favour of complainant

A clash between two veteran Glasgow solicitors is to be played out along the M8 in the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

Norna Crabbe has secured an early victory with a ruling that she personally be allowed to take part in a hearing which, on paper, involves William Macreath and the Law Society of Scotland. For several years up to 2005, Mr Macreath acted for Miss Crabbe in litigation arising from the dissolution of the firm of which she had been a partner.

She became dissatisfied with him and made a complaint to the law society.

The complaint has been investigated by four separate reporters.

A report in 2009 by the third reporter recommended that all heads of complaint by Miss Crabbe be dismissed, apart from one finding of inadequate professional services.

For that, the reporter suggested there be no sanction on Mr Macreath. Miss Crabbe objected to the report, and the society remitted the case to a fourth reporter who, in 2011, made five findings of inadequate services against Mr Macreath and seven findings of professional misconduct.

There was no finding in relation to the one head which had been upheld by the third reporter.

Mr Macreath has raised a judicial review petition in the Court of Session. He alleges a lack of procedural fairness by the society in its consideration of the complaint.

He argues that the 2011 report should be set aside and any final decision in the matter should be based on the 2009 report.

Miss Crabbe applied for leave to enter the case as an additional party. Mr Macreath opposed the move.

His counsel contended that she was not a person “directly affected” by any issue raised in the petition, and that the hearing would likely have to be discharged if Miss Crabbe became a party.

Lord Brodie said: “There may be instances where, having made a complaint to a regulatory authority, the complainer should be taken to have surrendered any private interest in the matter to that authority, but on the admittedly fairly superficial understanding of the scheme under the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990 which I was able to glean from the parties’ necessarily brief submissions, I do not see this to be such a case. I shall grant Miss Crabbe leave to enter the process.”

The hearing is now scheduled for October.