As part of the Law Society's omnibus survey solicitors were asked whether their firms have formal procedures to:-- deal with complaints from clients;-- record complaints from clients;-- keep in regular contact with clients between instructions;-- cross-sell other services to clients; and-- record suggestions from clients about how services could be improved.Compared with other procedures listed, a larger proportion of solicitors in private practice (86%) said their firms had formal procedures for dealing with complaints.

As professional practice rule 15 places a compulsory requirement on solicitors to operate a complaints procedure, this result is surprising only to the extent that 15% of solicitors surveyed had no such formal procedures in place.A slightly smaller proportion of private practice solicitors (83%) said their firms had formal procedures for recording rather than dealing with complaints from clients.

The requirement to record complaints from clients is not mandatory, however.

Where firms do keep such a record it will allow them to analyse their complaints records.

Therefore, what is usually regarded as a negative event can be used to a firm's positive advantage so that trends in the types of complaints received and changes that occur over time can be identified and remedial action taken if necessary.More than two thirds of solicitors (69%) in private practice said their firms had formal procedures for keeping in contact with clients between instructions, while slightly more than half (54%) of solicitors said there were formal procedures for cross-selling services to clients.

Of all the procedures mentioned in the survey, fewer solicitors (41%) had implemented formal procedures to record suggestions from their clients about ways to improve their service.The extent to which formal procedures are implemented effectively and consistently cannot be easily measured in a survey of this type.

However, it is i nteresting to note that relatively few solicitors receive specific training in the conduct of the procedures adopted by their firm.

Twenty nine per cent said they had received training in dealing with and recording complaints from clients.

Training provision for solicitors for the other procedures ranged from 26% for maintaining regular contact with clients to 15% for client suggestions for service improvement.DEALING WITH AND RECORDING COMPLAINTS FROM CLIENTSThe most marked difference in reporting the presence of formal procedures for dealing with and recording complaints was associated with the size of firm: only 66% of solicitors in sole practices said they had formal procedures to deal with complaints compared with more than 80% of solicitors in larger firms.Although the necessity to formalise procedures increases with the size of an organisation, the number of sole practitioners claiming to have these procedures is relatively small given the mandatory requirements of practice rule 15.

These findings, however, replicate those of other research studies which have examined compliance with practice rule 15.As one might expect, a greater number of solicitors in large firms received training in these procedures -- 33% and 36% respectively in firms with between four and 11 or more partners received specific procedural training in dealing with complaints, as opposed to 15% and 21% in sole practices and those with between two and four partners.The most significant factor associated with whether or not solicitors received training was age, with more than a third of solicitors aged 35 or younger having been trained, compared with a fifth of solicitors (19%) in the older age group.KEEPING IN REGULAR CONTACT WITH CLIENTS BETWEEN INSTRUCTIONSSolicitors working in the larger firms were more likely to report the existence of formal procedures for maintaining contact with clients between instructions.

Slightly more than 50% of solicitors in firms with five partners or fewer said they had such procedures, in contrast with more than 70% of solicitors in larger firms.The relationship between the age of solicitors and the extent to which they had undergone training was also repeated in the findings with 13% of solicitors in the older age group saying they had undergone training, relative to 34% in the younger age group.CROSS SELLING OTHER SERVICES TO CLIENTSThe variance according to firm size was most marked for solicitors reporting the existence of cross-selling procedures.This is to be expected, since solicitors in the larger firms are more likely to be specialists and therefore will need to refer internally clients who have multiple service requirements.However, the results also indicate that the largest firm, that is those with 11 or more partners, place greater importance on training their solicitors to conduct these procedures relative to the other procedures included in the survey since 41% of solicitors in these firms had received specific training in cross selling other services.

The corresponding figure for solicitors in sole practice was 8%.RECORDING SUGGESTIONS FROM CLIENTSThere was less marked variation in the proportion of solicitors saying that their firms had formal procedures to record suggestions from clients to improve their service than for all the other procedures reported.

Even where procedures had been implemented, less than a fifth of solicitors had received any training related to their implementation.

For the older age group the proportion who had been trained was 8% compared to 18% of younger sol icitors.