I REFER to the front page report in the South China Morning Post, on June 27, which, taken in isolation, is misleading and may cause unnecessary alarm. The Law Society remains vigilant in maintaining the highest professional standards amongst its members and protecting the public from negligence and/or fraud perpetrated by members and/or their employees.
Recent publicity focusing on the number of conveyancing claims is disturbing and there is no reason for complacency, but such reports should be viewed in context. Conveyancing covers by far the largest area of practice in terms of number of transactions and total fee income for solicitors' firms and it is not surprising therefore that the number of claims arising from conveyancing is higher than arises from other fields of practice.
The number of conveyancing transactions in Hong Kong in each of the last three years amounted to over 700,000 and against that an average of 59 claims per annum over the last seven years arising from such transactions, compares very favourably with the claims record experience in other well regulated jurisdictions.
Another reason for the high incidence of claims is the opportunity which is afforded to employees engaged in conveyancing transactions to engage in fraud because of the large sums of money which change hands as a result of those transactions; it is significant to note that not one of the 124 claims involving fraud (91 of which arose from incidents in one firm) arose from fraudulent conduct on the part of a solicitor, but rather from fraudulent conduct on the part of unqualified employees in solicitors' firms who were not properly supervised.
The public should derive some comfort from the recent report.
What it also demonstrates is that the Law Society is vigilant in regulating and policing the profession and ensuring that the victims of such misconduct and/or fraud are adequately recompensed.
