Prime Minister pledges action on collapsed Sheffield law firm

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing.

Last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to have the right person for the job pay extra attention to a Sheffield institution, although unfortunately not for a very cheery reason. At Prime Minister’s Questions, he was asked to do something about the horrifying situation facing around 1,400 former clients of Sheffield law firm SSB Law, which collapsed in January and left them with enormous bills they never expected they’d have to pay. Meanwhile, the post-mortem into why the firm died rumbles on, with yet another investigation announced earlier this month. 

As well as that, we have news of a row over late night opening in Sheffield city centre, the Hallé orchestra comes to City Hall, and a “much larger than average” cottage-style terrace comes on the market in Walkley.

Catch up and coming up

For our weekend read, David Bocking visited the ancient woodlands of Sheffield to see for himself some of the best urban bluebell displays in the country. You can read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two great newsletters to our 2,150 paying members. In the first, Victoria spoke to first Brit in space and Sheffield legend Helen Sharman about her pioneering voyage to the stars 33 years ago. And in the second, Dan visited the vast boohoo distribution centre in Tinsley to find out why the “fast fashion” firm is shedding hundreds of jobs just a few years after they were welcomed to the city with open arms. An extract from that second piece is below:

As more and more tasks are taken on by machines, the future for people in low-skilled employment like Boohoo looks bleak in the medium-to-long term. “In many ways that area is an ideal case study in deindustrialisation of the UK economy,” says Guy Cowman-Sharpe from the University of Sheffield. “Tinsley used to be the home of many of the steelworks that Sheffield had. These jobs were highly skilled, relatively well paid and unionised, and they produced things that were exported around the world. Now it is filled with warehouses which import garments from abroad and which are filled with low skilled, insecure work and no union presence.”

This week we’ll send out two more including one about what we should do with the former Debenhams department store on The Moor, and another about the future of Theatre Deli. To fund a new way of doing journalism based on paying members rather than clickbait and stories about celebrities, please subscribe using the button below. It costs just £8.95 a month or £89 if you pay for a year upfront (the equivalent of just £1.71 a week — less than a bottle of Hendo’s).

Editor’s note: As I mentioned in our update yesterday, the recent survey we sent out to readers contained lots of pleasing findings. One of the most important was on trust — it turns out that a massive 92% of you trust The Tribune, more than the number that trust BBC News and the Guardian. The fact that a title that is just three years old is one of the most trusted media organisations in Sheffield is remarkable and proves what you can do if you prioritise quality over clicks. To join the movement bringing hope back to local news, become a member today.

The big picture: Heads up 👱‍♀️

We love this photograph local snapper Tim Dennell took of the impressive wig range at Ali’s Hair and Cosmetics in the Moor Market. To see more of Tim’s photos, click here. If you have photos you’d like to share with Tribune readers, please email them to editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk.

This week’s weather 🌦

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say high pressure retreats into the Atlantic and sinks, allowing low pressure to wrestle back control. A cool and rather meek week.

Monday 🌧 A stubborn weather front was merely delayed, with persistent cloud and outbreaks of rain. Cold and murky with light winds. Highs of just 8°C.

Tuesday ☁️ Chilly northerly breezes with cloudy weather expected to dominate. Some brightness but also a slight drizzle/shower risk. Highs of 10°C.

Wednesday 🌥 Little change with cloud likely to persist with sunny breaks hard to come by at times. Still a chilly breeze with mainly dry weather. Highs of 10°C.

Thursday 🌦 Low pressure taking over but not a lot of difference. Bright spells possible but also a scattering of mainly light showers. Chilly with 10°C the high.

Friday 🌦 Mainly light winds and quite large cloud amounts. Any brighter spells will likely trigger a rash of afternoon showers. Highs of 11°C.

Outlook: Perhaps turning a little milder into the weekend, but remaining changeable with low pressure in control and further showers expected.

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook.

The big story: Prime Minister pledges action on collapsed Sheffield law firm ⚖️

Top line: The rotting oak that was Sheffield law firm SSB Law finally toppled to the forest floor in January, about two months after its CEO Jeremy Brooke announced its death to almost 200 staff. The firm specialised in commercial litigation (personal injury, medical negligence, etc) but, since its inglorious demise, many former clients promised a no-win-no-fee case have found themselves in a no-win-very-large-fee situation. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has promised to investigate what went wrong “as swiftly as possible”. However, as more and more fingers start itching for someone to blame — including the one attached to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — it seems some might be turning towards the SRA itself.

A recap: As detailed in our gripping account of the final months of “blind panic” within SSB Law, the firm seems to have been chiefly brought down by wall insulation.

• A Government-backed initiative saw cavity wall insulation installed in homes up and down the country to improve energy efficiency. In some cases, the job was done poorly and left properties damp and mouldy, to the point where residents successfully sued for compensation.
• Law firms specialising in civil suits smelled blood in the water and raced to snap up as many of these cases as possible, including some that proved to have little chance of succeeding in court. 
• In 2022, Liverpool firm Pure Legal collapsed owing £40 million. It had been pursuing thousands of cavity wall cases, which were bought and taken over by SSB Law.
• This, most people seem to agree, was a poor strategic choice. “I don’t know why SSB thought they could polish a turd,” one former employee told us in March. “Those cases were going disastrously wrong.”
• They were going so badly wrong, in fact, that the after-the-event (ATE) insurance providers who are supposed to foot the legal fees if a no-win-no-fee case does actually not-win were refusing to do so. SSB Law had failed to follow their terms and would have to pay up instead.
• Only SSB Law couldn’t; there were simply too many. “It didn’t matter what money we were bringing in,” the employee added, “because it would just haemorrhage out.” When it finally collapsed, those unpaid bills were sent to former clients instead.

Hundreds hit with huge bills: Around 1,400 former clients of SSB Law have now received letters demanding payment for fees of up to £40,000, sums that many insist they have no way of affording. Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne, among a group of MPs calling on the government to forgive their debts, said some of his affected constituents were "potentially talking about taking their own lives".

At Prime Minister’s Questions last Wednesday, Bradford West MP Naz Shah called on Rishi Sunak to tackle the “injustice”. Sunak promised to “make sure the right minister looks into it” and get back to her as soon as possible.

The regulator investigates… The SRA insists it will not hold back if it finds SSB Law did not “act in the best interest of their clients”. A statement on its website says that, “in the most serious cases,” individual SSB staff could be prosecuted at a disciplinary tribunal, which has the power to bar them from the profession and issue unlimited fines. The question the investigation is trying to answer is why the ATE insurance providers refused to pay up in so many cases. Had SSB Law “properly assessed the merits of claims,” and did it explain any potential risks to its clients?

Our investigation is ongoing. As part of this we are inspecting a sample of client files and checking the firm's systems and processes. We will also interview its directors and/or employees where necessary and engage with the ATE providers to clarify any information… Given the significant consumer detriment and serious questions this case raises, we are committed to progressing our investigation as swiftly as possible, while making sure it is thorough and fair. We expect our investigation to continue until autumn of this year. 

…and is investigated: Earlier this month, the Legal Services Board — an independent body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice — announced plans to investigate the SRA itself for failing to take action against SSB Law before it collapsed. With more timely intervention, could some or all of this mess have been avoided? 

It seems that some in the legal profession aren’t optimistic that this investigation will prompt serious reform. “The idea that the SRA might actually learn anything from the debacle is hardly likely,” wrote one anonymous commenter on the Law Gazette website. “Let’s hope they are not penalised in monetary terms — since they have none save ours.” 

Our take: We feel deeply for those former clients of SSB Law, who were encouraged to pursue cases that seem to have had little chance of succeeding — and believed they were doing so at no financial risk to themselves. Perhaps the best lesson that can be drawn from the collapse of this Sheffield firm, however, is that genuine win-win situations are difficult to come by. Eventually, someone has to pay.

The Weekly Whitworth ✍️

Our cartoonist James Whitworth with his take on Victoria’s recent interview with Helen Sharman.

Our media picks 🔗

City centre residents object to 3am opening plan 🥡 The city centre residents’ association has vowed to fight Glossop Road Chinese takeaway Chong Qing’s plans to open until 3am seven days a week. ChangingSheff chair Peter Sephton said the fight represented “the first battle, in what may be many more, to protect the residential areas in the centre for 27,000 residents to enjoy a good night’s sleep”. The licensing committee will decide the application on Tuesday.

Leader interviews 🗳️ The BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service has been an invaluable addition to the media in Sheffield. In the run up to this year’s elections, local democracy reporter Roland Sebestyen has interviewed the party leaders, and they’re all worth a read. He has done interviews with Labour leader Tom Hunt, Lib Dem leader Shaffaq Mohammed, Green leader Douglas Johnson, and Sheffield Community Councillors’ leader Dianne Hurst.

‘One of the greatest gigs I’ve ever seen’ 🥁 Roger Quail’s mission to document every gig he’s ever been to continues with this piece about the legendary Sun Ra (and his Arkestra) playing the Octagon Centre in 1983. He attends the gig as an admirer but leaves a huge fan. But it’s the little details that makes the project so compelling: the gig was one of the first to take place in the then new Octagon, and Roger buys Sun Ra’s album from the much-missed Rare and Racy.

Home of the week 🏡

This four-bedroom Walkley stone-built “cottage-style” terrace is “much larger than average”, and has a spacious garden with an outbuilding, as well as impressive views. It is on the market for £280,000. 

Tribune Tips: If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please email editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.

Things to do 📆

Art 🎨 On Tuesday at Weston Park Museum, environmentalist Chris Baines gives a talk about the Rivelin Valley Artists, a group of local men who painted there together after WW1. In this free illustrated talk, he will share the beauty of the paintings, the river and its wildlife, celebrate the role the artists played in protecting the valley from development, and ask if they discovered a pioneering way of dealing with the horror of war. The 45-minute talk begins at 1pm.

Music 🎻 The world famous Hallé Orchestra return to Sheffield City Hall on Tuesday, conducted by the Daniele Rustioni from Ulster Orchestra and of Opéra National de Lyon, who was named “Best Conductor of the Year” at the 2022 International Opera Awards. On the night they will play Wagner’s Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act 1, Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier: Suite and Oboe Concerto, and Liszt’s Les préludes. Tickets are £22.50-£31.95 and doors open at 7pm.

Plants 🪴 To Picture House Social on Wednesday comes Talking Plants, a social evening for people who love gardening. On the evening, Becky Crowley will deliver a talk about the key principles to consider when creating an ornamental cutting garden that is welcoming, productive and filled with life. After this there will be a late April plant identification session and lots of opportunity for socialising. Tickets are £6 (£4 for students) and doors open at 7.30pm.