Fostering Dismay


Solicitors will have read with incredulity and dismay your recent report that the new chief executive of the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) sees more complaints against solicitors as representing success (see [2007] Gazette, 18 January, 1).



To drum up more business, her initial strategy is to write to all of the 770,000 claimants who were involved with the miners' compensation scheme. No doubt anticipating rich pickings from such a source, a huge administrative machine will be set up at the profession's expense. When the source is found not to be quite as productive as may be supposed, and/or it is fully exhausted, what then becomes of the juggernaut?



The answer is that it is likely to be unstoppable, with a relentless onslaught to justify its existence, leading to the LCS seeking to obtain information from the land and probate registries about conveyancing and probate clients, so that it can approach them to incite complaints about the service they have received from members of the profession.



Everyone supports the need for rigorous investigation of genuine complaints, and the new service should offer just that. However, a department that has a brief actively to encourage complaints is extremely dangerous.



And where is the new model representation-only Law Society in all of this? If the rebranded Society is to gain the vital trust and support of the profession, it must take speedy and effective action to stem the dogmatic consumerist zealotry coming out of Leamington Spa.



Robert Ashton, Hacking Ashton, Newcastle under Lyme