A barrister who held meetings in McDonalds has been struck off.

Yvonne Turley passed her BVC and was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 2000. However, while she did not complete a pupillage, she still held herself out as a fully-qualified employment law barrister for over ten years. But the Bar Standards Board launched an investigation into her after several clients' complaints.

Many of her unfortunate clients were called to give evidence against her. Susan Simms, a nurse who claimed she was bullied by managers, was told by the CAB to call Turley. Simms complained that Turley "would never answer the phone", and when she finally did she had her meeting at McDonald's. "We went in and she didn't buy anything. We had our meeting there."

    How it might have looked

Another client said Turley told her she had a good case for constructive dismissal and could expect £20,000. But at the hearing Turley turned up late, had no paperwork and had "prepared nothing". She said Turley "could not string a sentence together", with the predictable result that the tribunal found in favour of the employer and Turley's client was told to pay £5,000 costs.

A third client told the tribunal how Turley advised him to resign and bring a claim against his employer. He later discovered she had failed to submit the necessary papers and he had missed the deadline for bringing his claim. So the net result was that he just didn't have a job anymore. Not a great result really.

Turley was disbarred and ordered to pay costs of £398. Head of professional conduct at the BSB, Sara Down, said "her actions misled her clients and the service she provided caused real detriment. Such deception and dishonesty is unacceptable and not compatible with holding the title of barrister."
 
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Comments

Anonymous 14 March 14 15:49

Great to see that the Tribunal was prepared to let this absolute waste of space continue to bring cases and present them , no need to flag up to anyone.