TARGETS: Law Society making representations to Legal Services Complaints Commissioner


The Legal Services Complaints Commissioner has declared the Law Society's complaints-handling plan for 2008/09 to be 'inadequate', and is now considering whether to fine Chancery Lane as a result.



Zahida Manzoor can fine the Society up to £1 million or 1% of its turnover, whichever is the smaller. When she declared the 2006/07 plan to be inadequate, she levied a fine of £250,000, although this was reduced to £220,000 when the plan was finally agreed.



In documents published on her website, she said: 'After the close working between our offices, I was surprised to see that the plan failed to demonstrate the Legal Complaints Service's (LCS) commitment to achieve many of the targets at the level I had set. In coming to my decision on the LCS elements of the plan, the areas which I consider to be inadequate prevent sufficient progress being made towards achieving effective and efficient complaints-handling.'



The plan should have kicked in on 1 April and Manzoor said she was disappointed that the LCS only committed to meeting some of the targets in the final quarter of the year, and that it would not agree to reducing the unit cost of each case to the level she wanted. She also criticised the LCS for not shifting enough people from administrative activities into caseworker roles, and expressed concern over the impact on the plan of the LCS's intention to roll out the Rother Valley pilot, which raised awareness among former miners that they may have a complaint.



'The LCS chief executive [gave] the Rother Valley pilot as a reason why resources had been squeezed, compromising the LCS's ability to meet targets,' Manzoor wrote. 'Including extension of this pilot to up to 500,000 miners as an initiative in the 2008/09 plan, without showing how this might affect achievement of the 2008/09 targets, represents a considerable risk.'



Manzoor had intended to announce her decision on any fine last month, but delayed it following a Law Society request to extend the timetable for making representations.



Law Society chief executive Des Hudson said: 'We are in the middle of confidential representations and it would be inappropriate to make further comment.'



Neil Rose