The Times: Lawyers launch petition for financial mis-selling tribunal

The Times Brief reports that we have launched an online petition in an attempt to apply public pressure on banks to settle compensation claims for financial product mis-selling.

The petition launched on Friday calls on the government to create a financial services tribunal that would resolve “customer disputes”.

City of London Lawyers-launch-petition-for-financial-mis-selling-tribunal-LEXLAW-SOLICITORS-LONDON-BANK-LITIGATION
Time Brief report: ‘Lawyers launch petition for financial mis-selling tribunal’

Behind the campaign is LEXLAW, a firm of solicitors and barristers based in Middle Temple. It is acting for Wenta – whose chairman won the Queen’s Lifetime Achievement for Enterprise Promotion last year – which claims that RBS has failed to pay up for allegedly mis-selling a complicated financial product that went wrong.

The petition states that:

“major banks and other financial services institutions are often in dispute with customers who deserve protection. Access to court is costly. The Financial Ombudsman scheme is inadequate. The Financial Conduct Authority is not equipped to resolve disputes. Tribunals offer scrutiny, justice and censure which deters misconduct.”

LEXLAW opened the petition after a debate on Friday of a private member’s bill in the House of Commons in which MPs were encouraged to support the creation of a “commercial financial dispute resolution platform”

“Only a tiny fraction of financial services disputes are ever litigated,” Mr M Ali Akram, principal lawyer at LEXLAW, said. “And the vast majority of good litigation cases settle, which means there is a lack of meaningful court precedents to force financial services institutions to deal with disputes fairly.”

SUPPORT THE PETITION FOR A FINANCIAL SERVICES TRIBUNAL