OSS faces Whitehall threat

LEGAL SERVICES OMBUDSMAN: warning of government intervention if targets are not met

The Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) continues to miss key performance targets, bringing closer the prospect of direct government intervention and the loss of self-regulation in complaints handling, this year's Legal Services Ombudsman annual report warns.

In her first report, Zahida Manzoor said that while the OSS has shown some areas of improvement, the gains were less impressive than she had anticipated.

'There hasn't been the significant progress that one would have expected given what has happened in recent years in terms of commitments made and resources allocated,' she said.

Over the past few years, the Law Society has considerably increased its spending on complaints handling and redress, from 6.4 million in 2000 to a projected 9 million for 2003.

There are now 182 caseworkers at the OSS, an increase of 47 since the beginning of this year.

Commenting on the OSS's performance in 2002-2003, Ms Manzoor said: 'There is a real problem.

We are half-way through the Law Society's financial year and there is no appreciable improvement on meeting the agreed targets.

This is particularly disappointing as a lot of money has been earmarked for improvements over the last two to three years by the Society and the OSS.' She highlighted the main targets of case handling turn-around times and the satisfaction rate with the way in which the OSS has dealt with cases that reach her office as particularly worrying (see box below).

Ms Manzoor said she will issue an interim report on the OSS's performance towards the end of the year, and if there are no improvements, she will talk to the government about activating reserve powers to create a legal services complaints commissioner, who would have stronger powers to oversee complaints handling.

Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva acknowledged that past under-investment had caused serious problems at the OSS.

However, she pointed to a three-year 21 million cash injection approved last October by the Law Society Council.

Mr Paraskeva said: 'We recognised last year that our service was not meeting our customers' expectations.

We were over-concerned with internal procedures and not seeing ourselves as our customers see us.

We are already scrutinising every aspect of the complaints handling process.

If a process does not help us to provide our customers with excellence, it is either being changed or scrapped.

'We are making progress on implementing the changes recommended both by the ombudsman, and by our Independent Commissioner, Sir Stephen Lander.

These should lead to a significant improvement in services to clients.'

Ms Manzoor criticised the OSS's policy of outsourcing complaints handling to solicitors' firms.

'I am concerned about complaints being handled by staff who are not 100% dedicated to performing that type of work, particularly when they are then offered incentives to complete the task within agreed time limits.'

She also suggested in her report that compensation for inadequate professional service needs to be raised.

Recently, Sir Stephen proposed that the maximum award be raised from 5,000 to 15,000 and the council is set to vote on it next week.

However, Ms Manzoor said: 'Only on very rare occasions has the Law Society awarded the current maximum.

What is the point of raising the maximum to 15,000 if you are never going to award it?'

She reiterated last year's message from her predecessor, Ann Abraham, who called for the creation of a single external body to regulate all legal services (see [2002] Gazette, 11 July, 1).

She said: 'We must start the debate on whether self-regulation by the professional body remains the best way forward for both the profession and the consumers.' Ms Manzoor added: 'It is evident that for a long time there haven't been any significant improvements in complaints handling by the OSS.

It may be time that action is taken by the new Department for Constitutional Affairs.'

Jonathan Ames

Main points of the Legal Services Ombudsman's report

- The office completed a record number of investigations (2,180), with complaints about solicitors forming 89% of the caseload.

There were 1,940 allegations about the handling of complaints by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS), compared with 1,629 in the previous 12 months.

- The ombudsman highlighted that since the beginning of 2001 - when, under pressure from the then Lord Chancellor, the backlog of live cases at the OSS was reduced to about 5,400 - the number of cases has increased significantly.

At the end of March 2003 it exceeded 8,000, and estimates from her office put the current live figure at near 9,000.

- Of even greater concern to the ombudsman was the time taken by the OSS to deal with complaints.

Figures for turn-around times for cases closed in the first quarter of this year fell short of target; 60% of cases should be closed within three months of receipt, and 75% within six months.

The figures were 46% and 69% respectively.

The age of on-going cases was also of concern: 58% are more than three months old, and more than 1,000 are over a year old.

- The report also focused on the ombudsman's dissatisfaction with OSS investigations referred to her office, although there was noticeable improvement.

The satisfaction rate for the current year was 67%, whereas for the previous two years the ombudsman was satisfied with the OSS's complaints handling in about 58% of cases.

The target, though, is 75%.