Conduct and serviceIgnore OSS letters at your perilHaving reduced its caseload to a manageable level, the next task for the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) is to achieve the quality and turn-round targets agreed with the government.The latter involves dealing with certain percentages of complaints within set time limits.

This is impossible if correspondence from the OSS is not dealt with promptly - or is even ignored - by solicitors.Also, complainants' understandable frustration at the OSS's inability to make progress with the complaint damages the public image of the office and consequently the profession as a whole.Some solicitors appear to think that replying to OSS correspondence is optional and not, as it is, a professional obligation (see Chapter 30.04 of Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors, 1999, eighth edition).

The reason for the obligation is elementary - if the profession can ignore its regulator, how can the regulator fulfil its function?Those who persistently ignore OSS correspondence can expect to face disciplinary proceedings which can and will be subject to a fast-track decision by the OSS.

What is more, the offence will not be treated lightly by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.This was amply illustrated in a case before the tribunal recently where the solicitor concerned had failed to reply to four letters and three telephone calls from the OSS.In fining the offending solicitor 1,000 and ordering him to pay costs, the tribunal said: 'The failure by a solicitor to respond to communications addressed to him by his own professional body made it impossible for that body to fulfil its regulatory role.'That operated to the detriment of the public interest and the pursuit of non-responding solicitors greatly increased the cost of self-regulation to the solicitors' profession.

Such non-response most certainly does amount to conduct unbefitting a solicitor and is unacceptable'.The lesson is clear.

Those who ignore correspondence from the OSS do so at their peril and can expect both swift retribution and a substantial penalty.l 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? Get in touch with Mike Frith at LAWYERLINE, the support service offered by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors, tel: 0870 606 2588.