Solicitors who failed victims of financial miss selling
At the beginning of the decade the big news in the financial retail sector was the miss selling of financial products known as “Split Capital Investment Trusts”. These high risk products were often presented and sold to investors as medium to low risk financial products but in fact were extremely high risk and ultimately lost a substantial amount of money. The inevitable wave of litigation against financial advisors who had recommended the schemes has long since subsided, but unfortunately it did not all end well.
We are instructed in relation to an action against solicitors who sought to bring class actions against financial advisors in the civil courts. Litigation was often unsuccessful and in some cases abandoned at great costs to litigants who had already lost out on their investment which often meant their life savings. We say that rather than sue, these victims should firstly have been referred to the Financial Services Ombudsman who has the power to investigate claims and make awards of compensation up to £100,000 completely free of charge and risk. Instead they were drawn into complex and costly litigation which bore little fruit except for the lawyers.
We are interested in hearing from anyone who unsuccessfully tried to sue financial advisors for miss selling of these products, whether it was through a class action or otherwise, so that we can assist them in finally recovering some of the money they lost.
Contact Stephen Hill if you want to get involved.