The Solicitors Regulation Authority is taking action against two partners whom it claims knowingly threatened legal action against innocent people.
David Gore and Brian Miller were both partners at Davenport Lyons, which sent some 6,000 letters to alleged file sharers on behalf of video games makers. The firm accused the recipients of piracy, and said that they'd drop the claim if they coughed up five hundred quid. Hundreds did, and the firm pocketed a significant chunk of the revenues collected.
The problem was that the pair identified the "pirates" solely on the basis of their IP addresses, the Solicitors Journal reports. And as the SRA has now pointed out, they knew that "they might, in such generic campaigns, be targeting people innocent of any copyright breach". The SRA also suggests that the partners put their own financial interests ahead of their clients, and fired off the letters "despite knowing that disquiet was being caused by their campaign, and that they might be targeting innocent individuals".
Davenport Lyons subsequently got out of this grubby trade and flogged its business to ACS:Law - which was embroiled in a massive shitstorm last month when it inadvertently released all its files to the world at large. But the SRA has said that its case against Miller and Gore will still be heard in May.
Miller has now left the firm but Gore is still there - indeed, he sits on its governing board. Davenport Lyons failed to return numerous calls for comment.
Tip Off ROF
David Gore and Brian Miller were both partners at Davenport Lyons, which sent some 6,000 letters to alleged file sharers on behalf of video games makers. The firm accused the recipients of piracy, and said that they'd drop the claim if they coughed up five hundred quid. Hundreds did, and the firm pocketed a significant chunk of the revenues collected.
The problem was that the pair identified the "pirates" solely on the basis of their IP addresses, the Solicitors Journal reports. And as the SRA has now pointed out, they knew that "they might, in such generic campaigns, be targeting people innocent of any copyright breach". The SRA also suggests that the partners put their own financial interests ahead of their clients, and fired off the letters "despite knowing that disquiet was being caused by their campaign, and that they might be targeting innocent individuals".
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Davenport Lyons' approach to litigation |
Davenport Lyons subsequently got out of this grubby trade and flogged its business to ACS:Law - which was embroiled in a massive shitstorm last month when it inadvertently released all its files to the world at large. But the SRA has said that its case against Miller and Gore will still be heard in May.
Miller has now left the firm but Gore is still there - indeed, he sits on its governing board. Davenport Lyons failed to return numerous calls for comment.