Chartered advice

CHRIS BAKER TAKES A LOOK AT THE LAW SOCIETY'S NEW CLIENT CHARTER, AND FINDS THAT DESPITE AN EXPECTED RISE IN COMPLAINTS INITIALLY, THE SOCIETY IS CONFIDENT THAT, IN THE LONG TERM, GRIEVANCES WILL BE REDUCED

Picture the scene - a client is sitting down for breakfast, opening post.

As his eyes scan down the pages of a letter from his solicitor, they widen with incredulity as they reach the following sentence:

'We agree that we shall not be discharged or released from our obligations under this deed, by any arrangement or agreement made between you and the contractor or a receiver, administrative receiver, administrator, liquidator, or a similar officer of the contractor, or by any re-negotiation, substitution, alteration, amendment or variation, however fundamental.'

He skims through a couple of lines, hoping to get to the point.

But the letter continues: 'by any

release or variation however fundamental of any invalidity in or any failure to take, perfect or enforce any other indemnity, guarantee or security in respect of the obligations to which this deed relates or, by any other matter or thing which but for this provision might exonerate us and this, notwithstanding that such arrangement, agreement,

re-negotiation, substitution, alteration, amendment, variation, forbearance, matter or thing may have been made, granted or happened without our knowledge or assent.'

Cue the spluttering of cornflakes and a complaint to the Law Society.

This turgid legal jargon - extracted from a single sentence just shy of 200 words - comes from a genuine solicitor's letter.

The client, understandably, complained.

There are some 7,500 complaints against solicitors on the books of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors at the moment, and it estimates that around a quarter of these concern complex legalese and jargon.

For this reason, the Society launched its client's charter last week.

A small booklet lets the customer know exactly what to expect and what to do if things go wrong, and is derived mainly from the most recent Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors, published in 1999.

'The reason for doing this is that one of the many complaints against solicitors is poor communication,' says Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva.

'All the research and focus groups we have undertaken found people feel it is difficult to communicate with the solicitors and when they do communicate they use a lot of legal jargon that people do not understand.'

Intimidated by a stream of outmoded verbiage, people are often afraid to ask for explanations, she adds.

Examples of jargon that people particularly dislike are: vicarious liability, codicil, ad idem, actus reus and vexatious action.

Ms Paraskeva is sure solicitors can put it in more understandable terms than that, as is the Plain English Campaign, which has endorsed the 250,000 initiative.

'It's not saying solicitors should not use legal jargon, but they must explain what those terms mean,' Ms Paraskeva adds.

The charter has been sent to all solicitors - and libraries, MPs, law centres and Citizens Advice Bureaux - across England and Wales, and is available in 13 languages.

To accompany it, the Society has produced a series of 11 'customer guides' providing advice to the public on matters such as wills, work disputes and personal injury.

The charter also includes advice for solicitors on rates and billing.

Client care letters should not be over-long or complicated, as they are intended to help the consumer understand, the Society warns.

The initiative has already proved popular.

'We have been inundated with requests for extra copies,' says Ms Paraskeva.

'Solicitors are saying: "Could you please produce a sticker for our window so clients can see we are part of this."'

The Society is looking into printing such promotional material, and Ms Paraskeva adds that it will have to reprint the charter and guides soon because of high demand.

However, one obvious side-effect of telling people how they can complain is that more people are likely to come forward with grievances.

The Society has estimated that complaints could go up by 30% over the next six months, but it has taken the view that it is a risk worth taking.

'It's necessary to run the risk of rising complaints if the public can better understand and solicitors can begin to deliver a much more customer-friendly focus,' Ms Paraskeva says.

But, as a high proportion of complaints are about poor communication, the Society hopes that the long-term goal of a reduction in complaints will be achieved.

The Legal Services Ombudsman has been asked to take the initiative into account and both the Lord Chancellor's Department and Master of the Rolls have voiced their support for the initiative.

It will not end with the charter.

The Society wants to encourage firms to ensure letter-writing skills form part of any training, and its team of 15 standards inspectors will visit any firm with a high number of complaints to spread best practice.

Many lawyers fully support the charter as a means of letting the public know that solicitors are not the patrician, aloof souls they may once have been.

Fiona Bruce, sole practitioner at Warrington firm Fiona Bruce & Co, says: 'The client's charter is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the profession has done in the last decade to improve the way it works for its clients.

I'm delighted that we are now communicating to our clients [through the charter] what we have effectively been looking at for the last decade - how to do a better job for them.'

Ms Bruce points to the criteria for the Lexcel quality mark, solicitors' yearly continuing professional development requirements, and strict requirements of client care prescribed by the Legal Services Commission as examples of how law firms now look after their customers.

'We are not very good at selling ourselves as a profession, but this charter will help,' she adds.

At Chesterfield private client firm CS2, partner Iain Burns agrees that the charter is a step in the right direction.

'We are a business at the end of the day and any business that does not have a customer focus simply does not provide a service,' he says.

'The more discerning law firms have been doing this sort of thing all along and we need to get the message to the consumer through the regulatory body.'

Mr Burns maintains that this service can be further enhanced by embracing IT, such as sending letters to clients in the form of text messages and paying money electronically.

'I know a lot of people are uneasy about the systematisation of the legal profession and the sophistication of the IT - but these are things our clients are asking for,' he says.

The charter has also been welcomed by City firms as a valuable means of advertising accessibility to the public.

However, some are not so sure that a small leaflet in plain English would be what their corporate clients need for reassurance.

A partner at one City firm, who prefers to remain nameless, strikes a note of caution: 'It's really good, sensible and accessible but in some respects it could seem quite naff.

If a client has been with us for years, such as a huge corporation, we can see problems.

They may think they know all the terms and what to expect already so it may cause offence.' Or, in other words, this initiative is better suited to high street firms - which are probably what the Law Society had in mind.

Even so, National Consumer Council chairwoman, Deirdre Hutton, says: 'Every client should be given the new client's charter at the start of their dealings with a solicitor.

We hope it will contribute to spreading good practice throughout the profession.'

Most lawyers would probably respond that the good practice is already there.

The problem is that the public still views the legal profession with some suspicion.

But it is hoped that the charter, and any subsequent promotional material for law firms' windows, will help send the message that lawyers can communicate with everyday folk.

Chris Baker is a freelance journalist