TRUST'S LAW FIRM BEING INVESTIGATED

An impossible situation...

When consultant urologist Peter Duffy was about to face his former bosses at an employment tribunal he was put in the most unenviable position at the eleventh hour.

Peter claims that UHMBT's solicitor Sean Hick, who works for Capsticks, sent him a letter just a few days before the beginning of the hearing warning him that he would be held liable for £100,000 in costs if he lost the case.

Peter says he was stuck between a rock and a hard place - knowing he was in the right and had to defend his integrity and professionalism but also fearing that he could be bankrupted.

"I had to have a number of agonising conversations with my family," he says.

"It was like they'd dropped a bombshell, and they'd waited until the last possible moment to press the trigger."

Peter was being represented by the British Medical Association union who told him they would not cover costs.

Fortunately for the interests of justice, and the public, Peter persevered.

And he won. To a degree.

But on the advice of his barrister Peter dropped parts of his claim - and focused on the elements his barrister Paras Gorasia believed were most likely to succeed.

"In the process we weakened my case," Peter recalls.

"When somebody says we will be expecting you to write out a cheque for £100,000... I lost count of the number of nights I would lie awake terrified of the consequences."

https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/17968663.solicitors-regulator-look-fgh-trusts-law-firm/

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