Conduct and service

Get your complaints act togetherOne of the purposes of amending Law Society practice rule 15 in September 1999 was to ensure that firms dealt...Get your complaints act togetherOne of the purposes of amending Law Society practice rule 15 in September 1999 was to ensure that firms dealt appropriately with complaints from their clients.

At that time the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) was struggling with an impossibly large caseload.

This was generating bad publicity and causing governmental concern.While the core aim was to help the OSS, the measure also recognised that complaints are more easily resolved if they are dealt with sympathetically and quickly, within the firm.The Lord Chancellor and the Legal Services Ombudsman repeatedly stress that the prime responsibility for dealing with clients concerns rests with firms.

It is wrong that so many clients should consider it necessary to refer their problems to the OSS.

Law Society President Michael Napier has also frequently highlighted the urgent need for firms to play their part.Yet literally thousands of firms are still ignoring their responsibilities.

Enquiries by the OSS compliance unit indicate that around 80% of firms still do not have an adequate complaints procedure in place.This is despite the fact that last July, the Law Society sent all solicitors in every firm with ten or fewer partners a copy of the booklet Handling Complaints Effectively.

Copies were also sent to managing and senior partners of firms with more than ten partners.

The booklet also contained specimen complaints procedures for different types of firm.The OSS is no longer prepared to be tolerant with those firms which do not appear to be making any effort to address complaints appropriately and thus force the complainant to approach the OSS.

Firms will be asked to demonstrate that they have an adequate complaints procedure.

Those that have supplied an inadequate service will be subject to enhanced penalties.Many firms are using outdated and inadequate procedures.

Others are relying on the fact that they are franchised, mistakenly believing that what the Legal Services Commission appears to accept as a complaints procedure at least matches the requirements of rule 15.

Practitioners should consult Handling Complaints Effectively and adopt, in amended form if appropriate, one of the specimen procedures in it.

Copies can be obtained from Jackie Dirkin at the OSS, tel: 01926 822196, fax: 01926 822149 or e-mail: jackie.dirkin@lawsociety.org.uk.

Also on the Law Societys site at: www.clientcare.lawsociety.org.uk 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.