Firms told to ditch the jargon

Poor communication and legal jargon should be eradicated from solicitors' practices, the Law Society said this week as it launched a client care charter.

Speaking at the release of the society's Plain English Campaign-backed initiative - which aims to explain what to expect from a solicitor and how to seek redress if things go wrong - the Society's chief executive, Janet Paraskeva, predicted use of the charter would ultimately lead to fewer complaints being made against solicitors.

However, Ms Paraskeva sounded a warning that in the short term greater client awareness could lead to an increase in complaints.

She acknowledged that complaints could initially increase by up to 30%.

'Raising awareness that you can complain will mean complaints will go up,' forecast Ms Paraskeva.

'We are facing that risk and we hope that we are prepared for it.

It is necessary to run the risk of raising complaints so the public can better understand and solicitors can begin to deliver much more client-friendly advice.'

The Society was bringing together a 'huge team' to deal with any potential backlog, and will be asking the Legal Services Ombudsman to take the new 250,000 initiative into account when complaints start coming in, she added.

It is currently processing around 7,500 complaints relating to service and conduct, while there were nearly 15,000 complaints about solicitors in England and Wales made to the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors in 2002.

Copies of the charter - which advises against using complex legal jargon such has codicil and vicarious liability - have been sent to solicitors' offices around England and Wales, where Ms Paraskeva said they had proved popular.

'Many hundreds of solicitors have written to us asking for more copies and it looks like we going for a reprint quite quickly,' she said.

The charter has been accompanied by a set of 11 customer guides providing advice for people on different aspects of complicated legal matters.

The National Consumer Council's chairwoman, Deirdre Hutton, welcomed the charter.

'We hope it will contribute to spreading good practice through the profession,' she said.

- Copies of the charter and guides are available to download at: www.lawsociety.org.uk or e-mail: customerguides@lawsociety.org.uk.

Chris Baker