Conduct and service

Tell the OSS your side of the storyIf a complaint about your service is referred to the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS), make sure that it is aware of all the relevant facts, even if they are so basic as to appear obvious.

Otherwise, there is a danger that wrong conclusions will be reached.The OSS receives numerous complaints about the service given by solicitors from people who are not, in fact, their clients - people to whom the solicitor owes no duties whatsoever.

Indeed, it is not unknown for the client to be perfectly happy with the service received, but, for some reason, anover-protective relative to be dissatisfied and then try to raise a complaint without the actual client even knowing.Many of these complaints are weeded out at source.

But some would-be complainants express themselves in such a way that the impression is given that they were the client.

This is especially the case under the circumstances described above.The OSS can proceed only on the information that it is given.

Unless it is told otherwise, the OSS will assume that the complainant was the client.

There is then the obvious risk of a miscarriage of justice.The point was given emphasis in a recent case where just that occurred.

The solicitor had been appointed the executor of a will, the residuary beneficiary under which was a grandchild of the testator.

The residuary beneficiary was 21 years-old by the time the testator died.

The solicitor obtained probate and administered the estate without any hint of complaint.Then, after completion of the administration, the beneficiary's mother filed a complaint with the OSS.

The details are irrelevant, save to say that the complaint was not serious.

The problem was that the solicitor, in dealing with the OSS, erroneously assumed that the caseworker knew the background.The upshot was an order, albeit a small one, reducing the solicitor's costs.

This understandably left him feeling aggrieved.

However, this unfortunate occurrence could have been avoided altogether had the solicitor ensured that the OSS was aware of what was a very relevant fact, not withstanding that the solicitor thought it was an obvious one.An earlier article gave a full explanation of the position vis--vis complaints in probate matters and from whom a solicitor will be expected to accept them (see [2000] Gazette, 10 February, 38).X Every case before the compliance and supervision committee is decided on its individual facts.

These case studies are for illustration only and should not be treated as precedents.

LawyerlineFacing a complaint? Need advice on how to handle it? Call Mike Frith at LAWYERLINE, the support service offered by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors; tel: 0870 606 2588.