McClure Solicitors: Class Action Bid to Seek Compensation
Addleshaw Goddard is preparing group proceedings at Scotland's highest civil court for former clients of McClure Solicitors, which collapsed in 2021. Clients say they were sold Family Protection Trusts that failed to deliver what was promised. McClure's former director disputes that.
Law firm Addleshaw Goddard is preparing a class action bid to seek compensation for former clients of McClure Solicitors, a firm with thousands of clients across the UK that went into administration in 2021. It plans to raise group proceedings at Scotland's highest civil court.
McClure, founded in Greenock, specialised in work such as wills and trusts. Former clients who have paid thousands of pounds in fresh legal fees since the collapse have described it as a scandal.
Addleshaw Goddard is now inviting people who had Family Protection Trusts set up by McClure to register interest in the proposed civil action.
What clients say they were sold
Trusts let people manage assets such as property or money, but the appointed trustees control those assets. Patrick Barnett, counsel at Addleshaw Goddard, said thousands of people across the UK had been sold Family Protection Trusts by McClure.
"We say those trusts do not do what the individuals who purchased them were told," he said. He said they were sold as protection from care home costs and as a guaranteed way to stop inheritance tax.
"What we say is that those things cannot be guaranteed and therefore it's been advice which has effectively been mis-sold," Barnett said.
Clients describe the cost
Isabel McCue, 82, first used McClure 13 years ago. She wanted a will but was advised to pay about £3,500 to put her home in East Kilbride into a trust. Two McClure lawyers became trustees of her house.
She expects to pay another lawyer more than £2,000 to remove them and end the arrangement. "I want my £3,500 back because they haven't done what they said they would do," she said.
Alistair Barclay, from Paisley, put his home into a trust after being told it would help protect it from care home fees. It cost him and his wife more than £4,000. He has since paid £2,500 to get the house back into his family's names.
"It's only in the last year I've found out the amount of people involved, which makes it into a scandal," he said.
Response and police position
Andrew Robertson, McClure's former director, said former clients should not fear that money has been wasted. He disputed that people were misled into paying for trusts.
Police Scotland said it had received information and documentation, which officers assessed, but no criminality had been established. When McClure went into administration, another firm, Jones Whyte, took on its files.
Barnett said bringing an individual claim may not be financially realistic for many of those affected, and that a group proceeding offers a potential route to compensation for eligible clients.
