Conduct and service

How will my client see this?Complaints to the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) all too often demonstrate a failure by solicitors to appreciate their clients' point of view.

Not only is insensitivity the root cause of the problem, but it often dominates the way the eventual complaint is handled, making referral to the OSS inevitable.Frequently, this characteristic is displayed when nothing happens on a file for a significant time.

Either the solicitor knows that nothing will happen for a while but doesn't warn the client, or the delay is unexpected but he fails to notice and doesn't pick up the telephone and tell the client why.Consequently the client thinks he's been forgotten and starts to make telephone calls to find out what's going on.

If for some reason the client can't speak to the solicitor and - as so often happens - the calls are not returned, he concludes the solicitor is deliberately avoiding him.

The downward spiral has started.

The telephone calls get more frequent.

The solicitor starts to see the client as a nuisance.

Finally there is an explosion of mutual recrimination.

When the inevitable complaint comes, it is also treated dismissively.A classic example involved a firm which started off on the wrong foot by failing to give the client appropriate costs information, including a proper explanation of the statutory charge.

This became significant when the fees levied at the end of the case exceeded the amount the client was to receive.

Not surprisingly, the client claimed the solicitors had pursued the claim merely to benefit themselves.The case lasted six years.

There were several spells when it 'went to sleep' for three or four months at a time.

During these periods, calls from the client went unheeded.

At the end, when the client made her complaints, the solicitors were dismissive, merely contradicting her assertions.The OSS took a dim view of the solicitors' handling of the matter throughout.

Not only had the service been deficient in several respects, but it had been compounded by the solicitor's failure to appreciate the matter from the client's perspective.

The upshot was an order to pay the client 1,650 compensation.

The first step to avoid complaints is always to ask yourself: 'how will my client see this?'.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.