Conduct and service

Appreciate the clients point of viewMany complaints can be traced back, in some way or other, to a breakdown in communications.

Often this breakdown results from the solicitor failing to appreciate the clients angle on matters and not understanding the clients concerns.

When anxious clients continually write or telephone for information, there is a tendency to regard them as a nuisance and ignore them.

This only makes clients more anxious and frustrated, and leads to increasing calls and matters spiralling out of control.A typical example occurred in a divorce case.

The acting solicitors concluded the action, which was followed by assessing the bill and accounting to the Legal Services Commission (LSC).

The settlement had involved the sale of the former matrimonial home.

That having been achieved, the solicitors submitted their file to a costs draughtsman, who returned the bill for assessment reasonably quickly.

Unfortunately, the solicitors had delayed submitting the file for assessment for a couple of months.The client was anxious to obtain her share of the proceeds.

She had written to the solicitors on a number of occasions as completion of the sale approached, enquiring when she would be able to have her money.

The firm neglected to tell her.

It did tell her that the bill had to be assessed and that they had to account to the LSC, but gave her no idea how long this was likely to take.In fact, all but a year elapsed between completion of the sale and the solicitors accounting to the client.

The matter was exacerbated by two factors: the client contacted the LSC, which authorised the solicitors to account to the client having deducted the gross amount of their proposed bill, but the firm did not do so; and the solicitors only accounted for the poor rate of interest paid on their normal client account.The client then complained that, not only had she been kept out of her money unnecessarily, but that it would have been quite possible to obtain a far better rate of interest had the solicitors bothered to do it.Until the completion of the house sale, relations between the client and the solicitors had been excellent.

Had the solicitors appreciated the clients anxieties and explained properly the restrictions and the likely time limits involved, it is probable that those relationships would have remained good.

As it was, deteriorating relationships were further soured when the solicitors began to ignore the client.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.