OSS backlog drops - but so does quality, says Legal Services Ombudsman

By Neil Rose

The Office for the Supervision of Solicitors is sacrificing quality for quantity in its handling of complaints, the Legal Services Ombudsman has warned.In her 1999/2000 annual report, Ann Abraham said she was only satisfied with the OSS's handling of 59% of the complaints referred to her, an all-time low.

The satisfaction figure has dropped steadily from 70% in the first ombudsman's report in 1996.

Last year it was 64%, which is also the OSS's target.While the OSS might reach its target of reducing the complaints backlog to 6,000 by December, Ms Abraham indicated that this would be no more than a numerical victory.

'The sort of assurance on matters of quality that was anticipated is still proving elusive,' she said.Incoming Law Society President Michael Napier said: 'It's a question of attitude - we have to do more to stop complaints coming in at the sharp end...

solicitors still tend to be over defensive when dealing with complaints from their clients, whether legitimate or not.'Ms Abraham wrote: 'Delay is not the only problem.

There is evidence of many other administrative problems and there are far too many cases where the quality of the OSS's decision-making is simply not acceptable.

In the light of this very recent evidence, serious doubts must remain about the OSS's ability, in the long-term, to find the right balance between quality and quantity.'But he said the Law Society will fight to retain its role in the self-regulation of solicitors, despite government threats to appoint an independent complaints commissioner.

'We are determined not to let self-regulation be taken from us by the government...

It is important, for once and for all, that we sort out OSS and complaints-handling,' he said.Mr Napier suggested that the trend of employing quality managers to deal with customer complaints, more non-lawyer involvement in the OSS and more customer care surveys should improve the complaints situation.At best, the Law Society can consider that it has reached 'first base' in tackling the complaints issue, Ms Abraham said.

'There are some signs emerging from the Law Society of a developing strategy for improving client care amongst solicitors.' But she was highly critical of what she saw as a 'lack of any overall coherence' in the Society's approach to the problem.Ms Abraham commended theSociety's plans to rewrite solicitors' code of professional conduct as well as its 'open-minded' approach in looking at the future of regulation more generally.The ombudsman said that too often, solicitors retreat into 'self-righteous indignation and confrontational self-justification', she maintained.In total, the ombudsman conducted 1,522 investigations in 1999/2000, 88% of which related to solicitors.

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