Edge warns against scale fees sabotage

CONVEYANCING fees campaigner John Edge has told Law Society Council members the profession "will not forgive or forget" them if they try and sabotage a move to bring back scale fees.

The Bournemouth campaigner is pressing ahead with his initiative, buoyed up by public support from Law Society leaders following revelations in last week's The Lawyer that he is the subject of an insolvency arrangement over personal property development work which "went wrong".

Both president Martin Mears and deputy Robert Sayer said Edge's personal financial difficulties had no bearing whatsoever on his campaign.

Bournemouth Law Society also gave its full support to the solicitor.

But Kent conveyancing lawyer Brian Marson, an outspoken critic of the initiative, said Edge should have made his individual voluntary arrangement public at the start of his campaign.

Edge has renewed a vigorous lobbying campaign with a circular letter to Law Society Council members informing them of his expectation that resolutions will be put before December's council meeting "concerning the issue of guideline conveyancing fees and changes in the indemnity arrangements".

He calls on council members to contact him with any reservations about plans to back up conveyancing fees "with sanctions against undercutting".

Mears said Edge was pulling at an "open door", and he and Sayer were moving as fast as they were able to on the issue.

But council member and presidential election candidate Eileen Pembridge dismissed the letter.

"It's all part of the 'I was robbed' bully boy approach," she said.