Middleweek to sue legal team for £1m

THE man who sensationally accused stockbroker Collins Stewart of insider dealing has launched a £1m lawsuit against his former lawyer and barrister.

James Middleweek claims that solicitor Dale Langley and employment barrister Michael Duggan were negligent in preparing and presenting the case against his former employer for constructive dismissal. This resulted in his case becoming a lost cause and his mental health being affected, he says.

Middleweek's claims that Collins Stewart had talked up the price of shares caused a sensation when they were revealed by Financial Mail in 2003. They were in a dossier Middleweek prepared for the Financial Services-Authority and attached to a High Court writ.

Middleweek still worked for Collins Stewart when he went to law, but he says his advisers insisted on using the claims as a 'bargaining chip' in his negotiations with Terry Smith, the chief executive of Collins Stewart.

As a result, Middleweek found himself 'notorious in the City of London and in the wider financial world as a whistle-blower and a blackmailer,' the High Court writ says.

Legal documents in the possession of Financial Mail say that Middleweek was forced to settle his case against his former employer without either side having costs paid because 'of the unacceptably high risk that he would not succeed in proceedings in the light of Collins Stewart's defence that it was entitled to dismiss him for gross misconduct'.

Middleweek's mental health was also affected by the stress of the dispute, the document claims.

Middleweek, through his new lawyers, the Simkins Partnership, also says that the original claim for more than £3m was too much when the maximum that could properly be claimed was three months' salary or £23,750. It was wrong to try to claim £407,000 for lost equity options as they had not then been forfeited.

Langley and Duggan did not return calls asking for comment.