PERFORMANCE: Legal Complaints Service set to fail on four goals including quality of service


The Legal Complaints Service (LCS) looks set to fail four key quality targets imposed by the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner (LSCC) for 2007/08, the Gazette has learned.



Each year, the LCS is assessed against a performance plan set down by complaints commissioner Zahida Manzoor. In the current plan, the LCS must meet 13 targets covering quality of service, timeliness, delivery and its own complaints-handling procedures.



According to an OLSCC (Office of the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner) interim audit in November, the LCS will fail on targets relating to providing substantive responses on complaints within 45 days, providing substantive updates on lengthier cases and making correct special payments to compensate for LCS errors.



In addition, the LCS is not meeting its target for dealing with complaints about its own service that have been passed to Ms Manzoor, who also acts as the legal services ombudsman.



LCS chief executive Deborah Evans said it was likely to 'narrowly' miss the targets but defended the organisation's record, saying it has to meet tougher targets than most public bodies.



The target for substantive responses within 45 days is 88% of cases, with the LCS expected to achieve 80-84%. In terms of providing updates on lengthier cases, the target is 88%, with the LCS expected to achieve 78-82%. For special payments, the target is 85%, with the LCS expected to achieve 78-80%.



The ombudsman has said she must agree with LCS decisions on complaints subsequently passed to her office 73% of the time, and that less than 5% of all cases should be referred to her. Currently, 6% of complaints end up with the ombudsman, but less than 1% of them are eventually upheld.



While pointing out that additional work, such as the coal miners compensation pilot in the Rother Valley area, had squeezed resources and compromised the LCS's ability to meet targets, Ms Evans called for more sophisticated goals to be introduced.



She said: 'The targets are about specific actions and not about getting it right or wrong. This year, we have asked for the right answer to be in targets as well.'



Ms Manzoor said the targets were agreed and supported by the LCS at the time, adding that while the interim audit showed room for improvement, she was optimistic improvements could be made by the year-end.



See feature, Hard Target



Anita Rice