The UK Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) has finally published the full details of its Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) charges against Andrew Crossley (150435), the boss of a now notoriously defunct law firm ( ACS:Law ) that sent "bullying" letters to those accused of having abused their broadband ISP connections for "illegal" internet copyright infringement (piracy).

The SRA charges, which were originally brought on 18th August 2010 but have only now been published, claim that Crossley "acted without integrity" while attempting to extort money from those it threatened in order to "take unfair advantage". ACS:Law is known to have sent thousands of letters, many of which demanded big settlement payments of several hundred pounds (e.g. £500) and often used unreliable IP address based evidence.


An SDT hearing is now set to take place in open court, save for in the most exceptional of circumstances, during October 2011. The judgement will then be published on the SDT website. Meanwhile we're still awaiting the outcome of Ralli's £90,000 Wasted Costs claim against ACS:Law, which followed Crossley's spectacularly failed attempt to sue 27 individuals earlier this year (here).

The situation has since been made more complicated because Crossley was officially declared bankrupt by the London High Court on 20th May 2011 (here), which has already allowed him to escape payment of a meagre data security fine from the governments Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). At least he still manages to live in a mansion. Credits to PC Pro for spotting the SRA charges first.