The complaints handling bodies of the British legal professions may at times feel a bit got at, taking flak from government, the public and the professions themselves.


But one international comparison should snap them into realising how lucky they are. Nimisoere Walson-Jack, the General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, entertained delegates with a run-down of the typical complaints that crossed the desk of his regulatory body. Among the more standard services issues that would be familiar to the Bar Council and the Law Society in England and Wales were these two frequent problems: lawyers having children out of wedlock, and lawyers failing to keep promises of marriage.



The mind boggles at the prospect of those two acts becoming breaches of the various professional practice rules in the UK. Indeed, some would suggest that the numbers in the domestic profession could be devastated by complaints if the rules were tightened to cover old-fashioned Victorian values.