I made a will . . . but the lawyer holding it has disappeared
Ms L.N. writes: I am having problems locating my will, which was prepared by Harraway Law, of Cottingham in East Yorkshire, and stored with it. I was unaware that the solicitors had closed down. I received no communication to inform me of the closure. My only request is that my will should be returned to me.
IT IS now three months since I reported on the chaos at Harraway Law. The firm’s boss Caroline Harraway walked out of her own firm last June. It struggled on for a few more weeks until it closed down on July 21. Since then, a steady stream of clients say they paid up front for work which has not been done, or – like you – they need to retrieve personal papers held by the firm.
You have done your best. You emailed, but there was no reply. You telephoned, but the firm’s line was dead. You went to Harraway Law’s offices but found a new company had moved in. In fact, Caroline Harraway seems to have abandoned not just her firm but her career as a lawyer. She now runs a pre-school centre and nursery, and a fitness centre.
Her law firm’s past is catching up with her, though. She failed to file accounts that were due last September, and officials at Companies House began proceedings to strike off her company. Those proceedings have been suspended, which typically means there is an investigation going on, or that creditors have objected.
None of this will be new to Ms Harraway. She previously ran Orion Law, a firm of solicitors in Hull. It was compulsorily struck off by Companies House three years ago.
So where does this leave you and your will? The watchdog body for law firms is the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. It tells solicitors to put clients’ interests first if they plan to close down, and warns them: ‘If you do not obtain proper consent from clients about where they want their money and papers to go, you could act in breach of trust, breach confidentiality, and become subject to a complaint by the client to the Legal Ombudsman Service. There could also be disciplinary consequences.
‘Ultimately, if clients’ interests are at risk, we might have to intervene.
For example, if you are insolvent, abandon your practice or do not secure client files. If we have to do this, we recoup the cost of doing so from you. The costs are generally quite high.’
The SRA is now actively investigating Harraway Law. One official told me: ‘We have had a number of similar complaints about the return of files from other former clients, so we are looking into the firm’s potential failure to close in an orderly manner.’
If Caroline Harraway fails to return your will and all the other documents she held for her clients, then the SRA will ‘intervene’, which means it will use its powers to appoint another firm to go in and seize Harraway Law’s files.
The SRA asks that anyone who is facing problems in obtaining papers held by the firm should get in touch by going to sra.org.uk/home/contact-us.