Craig Cooper; Erich Kurtz

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The SRA alleged that solicitors Craig Cooper (First Respondent) and Erich Kurtz (Second Respondent), managers/owners of Barings Ltd, made misleading statements to clients and failed to obtain informed consent (Allegation 1), failed to assess the merits of Pay Day Loan mis-selling claims (Allegation 2), and (against Cooper only) received £230,500 into client account without adequate Client Due Diligence in breach of the MLRs 2017 (Allegation 3). The Tribunal found the Respondents to be credible witnesses. It found the Applicant relied largely on hearsay evidence from aggrieved lenders and 'fake claims' submitted duplicitously, with no primary evidence from dissatisfied clients (all claims had succeeded and no client complained). On Allegation 3, the Tribunal accepted the payment was a legitimate payment on account of costs, which fell outside the scope of the MLRs 2017 per applicable Law Society Guidance. All allegations were found not proved and dismissed. The Tribunal found a 'good reason' of comparable gravity to depart from the starting point of no order as to costs (the SRA proceeded without sufficient primary evidence), and ordered the SRA to pay £20,000 to Cooper and £10,000 to Kurtz.