Date set for ASC:Law’s Andrew Crossley to face Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal

ACS:Law solicitor and ISPA Internet Villain 2011 Andrew Crossley is set to face a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing on January 16, 2012.

Crossley is set to face disciplinary proceedings surrounding the circumstances of letters his now defunct law firm, ACS:Law, sent to alleged peer-to-peer file sharing broadband users.

They started claims against the recipients, accusing them of copyright infringement through P2P file sharing. However the tone of the letters, which were accused of using bullying tactics, led to hundreds of complaints being made to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

In August of last year the SRA confirmed it had decided ACS:Law’s Crossley “had a case to answer” regarding the campaign, which had allegedly seen tens of thousands of letters sent out.

The SRA then referred the case to Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which independently adjudicates over alleged breaches of the rules and regulations applicable to law firms and solicitors. It has now set the hearing date for January.

Back in September 2010, ACS:Law’s website was hacked and emails, left in an open directory, were copied and distributed on file sharing networks. The embarrassing episode saw many details of how Crossley ran his business, plus personal details, come out in the open.

It was also considered a serious data protection breach, as details of 6,000 computer users targeted by the firm had personal details compromised. Crossley was fined £1,000, which at the time (May 2011) Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said would have been much higher if ACS:Law had still been trading.

At the annual Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) Awards in July, Crossley was named 'Internet Villain of the Year', having been beaten the previous year by Peter Mandleson. The award literature read, "For demanding payments from members of the public on behalf of certain rights holders with poor evidence which brought the 'legal profession into disrepute', and for failing to secure the data of those accused”.