ROTHER VALLEY: letters trigger complaints about solicitors


A controversial Legal Complaints Service (LCS) pilot is helping to recover more than £220,000 of solicitors' fees wrongly deducted from the damages of miners claiming under the government's coal health compensation scheme - and is expected to recover much more.



The pilot involved writing directly to the 3,643 former miners in the Yorkshire parliamentary constituency of Rother Valley to ask if they had received poor service from their solicitor and, if so, wished to make a complaint (see [2007] Gazette, 12 July, 1). The miners were also invited to information seminars. Some solicitors believe the LCS should not be procuring complaints.



The board of the LCS was told last week that, by the end of August, 354 complaints had been received and the number was still growing. The LCS estimates that the average refund would be £620.



LCS board chairman Professor Shamit Saggar praised the success of the pilot, saying that it was 'difficult to implement', but essential given the ill-health and vulnerability of the former miners.



He added that the pilot was also 'counter-intuitive' in that the LCS, a body struggling to keep abreast of current levels of complaints, had gone out of its way to encourage yet more complaints.



LCS chief executive Deborah Evans said the letter had caused a 'spike of 10%' in expected complaints levels. She added that this was in line with LCS estimates and could be handled by existing staff levels.



Roll-out of the pilot is likely to happen in the new year. It will be carried out constituency by constituency, so that the LCS would not be overwhelmed by complaints and staffing could remain unchanged.



Jonathan Rayner