Solicitors across Britain are bracing themselves for further sanctions over the coalminers’ compensation scandal that led to two lawyers being struck off for dishonesty. Jim Beresford and Doug Smith, former partners in a Doncaster law firm that was paid £136 million by the Government for handling claims by sick miners, were found guilty this week of conduct unbecoming a solicitor.

Further hearings before the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal will begin next year, involving law firms from Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Preston, York, Hull, Derbyshire and Essex.

Partners in 67 firms have been investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over their work on a scheme that will have cost the taxpayer £7 billion when the final case is settled next year.

Claimants’ lawyers will share £1.2 billion. Some topped up their earnings by deducting “success fees” from their clients’ damages, while others sliced off money and paid it to trade unions. Tens of thousands of miners and their widows received far less money than the lawyers who processed their claims for chronic lung disease and a crippling hand condition, caused by their work.

Solicitors from 24 firms have been ordered to appear before the tribunal on misconduct charges. If some of the serious allegations are proved, more lawyers are likely to be struck off. Peter Williamson, the Solicitors Regulation Authority chairman, said that he was ashamed by the conduct of some firms.

Partners at a further three solicitors’ firms that received UDM claims from the Union of Democratic Mineworkers – Wake Smith and AMS Law, of Sheffield, and Chesterfield-based BRM – are among those facing charges at the tribunal.

Next month ties between lawyers and a second union will be examined when six partners at Raleys, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, begin a 20-day hearing at the tribunal’s head office in Central London. Their firm, which acts for the National Union of Mineworkers in Yorkshire and Lancashire, has earned £92 million for its work on coal-health claims.

Three years ago The Timesrevealed that thousands of Raleys clients were misled into handing millions of pounds from their damages to the NUM. The law firm advised retired miners that if they agreed to pay part of any compensation to the NUM, it would fund their legal claim. In reality the Governmentwas paying solicitors’ costs for cases that were settled successfully. Less than one in ten claims failed. Raleys, in common with most firms hauled before the tribunal, denies any wrongdoing.

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• BGC 'set aside £40m to lure Tullett brokers'
• Legal aid review to ensure value
• Fears as 21 magistrates' courts face closure