UK firm sanctioned for dishonest asylum claims

Two brothers have been sanctioned by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) after the UK Government raised concerns about certain law firms making a disproportionately high number of 'totally without merit' judicial review claims in immigration and asylum cases. According to a Law Gazette report, the Home Office informed the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that the firm at the centre of the tribunal case Solicitors Regulation Authority v Malik Mohammed Nazeer and Malik Mohammed Saleem submitted 35 cases between April 2014 and July 2015 that were judged to be totally without merit. The SRA alleged that, between January 2014 and December 2015, the brothers brought or facilitated judicial review claims on behalf of clients in circumstances when they knew or should have known that the claim was not properly arguable and its true purpose was to thwart or delay lawful removal or procure release from lawful detention. The brothers were accused of deliberately or recklessly failing to warn some clients that any claims they brought were bound to fail or be out of time. The tribunal found that Saleem's misconduct arose from an 'overzealous desire to help clients that he perceived to be vulnerable. There was an element of breach of trust in that clients had trusted him to correctly advise them as to their prospects of a successful challenge by way of judicial review'. Saleem was suspended from practice for 18 months. The tribunal said the firm's management system, for which Nazeer was responsible, was 'limited and chaotic'. Nazeer was fined £20 000, ordered to pay £13 014 costs, and will be subject to practising conditions.