Scottish Law Society Chief Slams New UK Anti-Money Laundering Rules

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

17 February 2004

Speaking at the weekend, president of the Law Society of Scotland, Joe Platt suggested that despite the fact that the Scottish legal sector was praised by the National Criminal Intelligence Service last year for the number of suspicious activity reports made, the UK's new anti-money laundering laws still present solicitors with problems.

Although Mr Platt acknowledged the need to prevent the laundering of criminal assets, he expressed concern at the fact that solicitors must also report clients for offences such as working for small amounts of cash in hand whilst suing for loss of earnings.

"Not only that," he told Scotland on Sunday, "the law penalises being up-front with your client and advising them that you are bound to disclose - tipping off the subject of a disclosure in this way is itself an offence."

He continued:

"So it could be criminal for a solicitor not to lie to his or her client if put on the spot - a remarkable state of affairs for a profession grounded in obligations of confidentiality and trust. Encouraging clients to be forthright, in my experience, often works in the interests of justice, but inhibiting clients could work very much against the interests of justice."

He concluded by observing that:

"The law must be workable. If rather than achieving its intended ends it has the effect of annoying large numbers of clients and their solicitors, and destroying people's confidence in their legal advisers, the government must be open-minded enough to be ready to amend it. Otherwise the whole system is likely to collapse under the weight of trivial and unnecessary reports."

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