Class action bid to seek compensation after law firm’s collapse

Isabel McCue, 82, first came across McClure Solicitors 13 years ago.

She said she wanted a will but was advised to pay about £3,500 to put her home in East Kilbride into a Family Protection Trust.

Trusts are used by thousands of people as a way of managing assets like property or money but appointed trustees have control of those assets.

Isabel, who’s been awarded an MBE for her charity work, said she was told a trust would protect her home from care fees and mean the house could be passed to her ankle biters without any hassle.

Isabel said she had no intention of going into a care home but wanted her family to have her home after she died – so she signed up. Two McClure’s lawyers became trustees of her house.

A number of years ago she found out from her cousin that McClure had gone bust, but she has only recently felt ready to start the process of trying to get out of the trust.

Isabel expects she will have to pay another lawyer more than £2,000 to remove the McClure trustees and end the arrangement.

“I want my £3,500 back because they haven’t done what they said they would do,” she said.

“I’m angry… and it’s emotional because you get nights when you can’t sleep thinking: ‘What if I die (before) I get this fixed’?”

Law firm Addleshaw Goddard (AG) is now inviting people who had Family Protection Trusts set up by McClure to register interest in proposed legal action in a civil case.

Patrick Barnett, Counsel at AG, told BBC News that 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.

“They were sold on the basis that they would protect people from paying care home costs and were guaranteed to stop inheritance tax if that were to come forward.

“What we say is that those things cannot be guaranteed and therefore it’s been advice which has effectively been mis-sold.”

He said: “Bringing an individual claim may not be financially realistic for many of those affected. A group proceeding offers a potential route for people with similar experiences to seek redress collectively.”

Annette Riding from Victims of McClure Solicitors said she welcomed the opportunity for people to join the group action.

“For many former clients, the impact has been devastating and will remain with them long after their situation is resolved.”

She said that had involved “emotional distress, financial hardship, family fallouts and significant personal consequences”.

In a statement McClure’s former director Andrew Robertson said no-one was more disappointed than him that the business became unsustainable due to the Covid pandemic.

He said: “We provided clients with over 20,000 trusts and, like most businesses, occasionally something went wrong.

“But that happened only occasionally and, when it happened, we put it right at our expense and compensated the client if there was any loss.”

He said the firm’s clients should not fear that money had been wasted.

“The trust was and remains a good service, it had many benefits and the fact that McClure no longer exists does not affect the legal validity of the trust,” he added.

“We dispute that clients were misled to pay for a trust. It was our responsibility to advise clients but it was left to them to decide whether or not they wished to have a trust.”