Conduct and service

Mountains out of molehillsWhy do solicitors so often react belligerently to complaints about their service? A common reason for this is the tendency to stand on what is perceived as their 'rights' and consequently stay inflexible and unsympathetic to the client's point of view.This results in problems which should have been quickly resolved spiralling out of control and the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) dealing with yet another complaint that should never have seen the light of day.Such was the case with a firm which was acting for the life tenant of a trust and as one of the trustees.

The solicitors knew a firm of accountants also acted for the life tenant, and they received a letter from the accountants asking for financial information relating to the trust.

The solicitors supplied the information, with a bill for about 200.The accountants refused to pay.

They said they had not asked for legal advice or been warned they would be charged for the information.

The solicitors sent copies of correspondence with the accountants to the life tenant.

Eventually they warned her that unless the issue was resolved, they would issue proceedings against both her and the accountants.

Soon afterwards the solicitors wrote saying the issue would have to be left to the court to decide.No doubt thoroughly alarmed, the client offered to pay the solicitors' bill if they would send one addressed to her.

The solicitors refused, saying they had already billed the accountants and could not send her a second bill for the same work.Eventually, between them, the accountants and the life tenant paid the bill.The OSS's view was that the solicitors had shown precisely how not to handle complaints.

Not only were they ordered to repay the costs paid by the life tenant, but also 450 compensation.

The impact on their relationship with their client is not known.Leaving aside the question of whether they should have said they would charge for providing the information to either or both the accountants and their client, why they were so legalistic, lofty and unbending is a mystery.What made it worse for the client was that had the accountants asked her for the information, she could have supplied it herself.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.