As a Conservative law blogger, I read left-wing Labour blog the Skwawkbox surprisingly often, usually in an attempt to convince Labour-backing family members that Keir Starmer is a bad man and they should consider that, “other” party. Earlier today, I happened to notice a story about a Twitter account called @Women4Wes and a letter the operator had allegedly received from solicitor Gerald Shamash from Edwards Duthie Shamash. The letter was so plainly deficient that I reported it to the SRA, since if he really wrote it, I felt it should be investigated as a conduct issue. The SRA have now confirmed they are gathering further information. At the same time, Edwards Duthie Shamash (EDS) have contacted me saying that the letter is a forgery, which I find to be a plausible explanation. Either way, someone is in trouble.
A letter allegedly from Gerald Shamash, solicitor, to a Twitter user. The letter opens by purporting to be an order. Mr Shamash’s law firm, EDS, say it is forged and he did not write it.
This is a really bad solicitors letter. So bad, I was not certain that a real solicitor wrote it. The letter does not clearly identify a head of claim, although it refers to harassment and content which, “infringes” on their client’s character. It does not refer to a statute or to my mind comply with adequate clarity with the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct or any pre-action protocol. For example, I am not clear how a site called, @Women4Wes can be said to be pretending to be Wes Streeting. If I was writing this letter for myself or someone I was charitably assisting as a McKenzie Friend, I would comply fully with the Pre-action Protocol for Media and Communications claims. There would probably be a schedule of harassing tweets and also defamatory tweets.
However, the real flaw is in the opening five words, “This CEASE AND DESIST ORDER […]“. I’m a gonna lay it out there. This letter is not a court order. Solicitors generally do not and cannot make, “cease and desist” orders. Judges do. Anyone with a reasonable familiarity with the legal system should know this and critically, a solicitor ought to know this is not appropriate. A legally ignorant, poorly educated, recipient might well confuse this with a court order such as a restraining order. It is on headed notepaper, apparently from a real firm of solicitors. It looks, “official”.
That is not to endorse the @Women4Wes account, which has to my mind made some very unwise posts. I did see, within moments of reading it, what I thought was an actionable post (albeit, not actionable by Mr Streeting). That is no excuse for this letter. If I was an aggrieved politician and I paid a solicitor to write a letter and they sent me this as a draft I would terminate the instruction on the spot citing a loss of confidence in their competence and then I would demand a full refund of the retainer.
I put the allegation to Gerald Shamash of Edwards Duthie Shamash and to his senior partner, Shaun Murphy, asking if they really wrote this letter. I received a letter from an associate denying it. I also put the allegation to the SRA press office. Taking my points, they confirm that they are looking into the matter. An SRA spokesperson said: “Now we aware of this, we will gather all relevant information before deciding on any next steps.”
