Solicitors' professional negligence frequently involves difficult points of law and facts, and yet the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner, Zahida Manzoor, is pressurising the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) to deal with negligence claims (see [2007] Gazette, 21 June, 1).


This is not the correct forum for the detailed examination of documents and there is no mechanism for the proper examination of the allegations. Furthermore, as the complaints procedure and civil courts operate in parallel, if the complainant fails in the complaints procedure to obtain redress, then they can take the matter to court afterwards.



The situation becomes worse if the solicitor is unhappy with the outcome. He or she is deprived of any method of appeal short of judicial review.



The complainant, on the other hand, has rights to go to the Legal Services Ombudsman (LSO) to complain ostensibly about the way in which the LCS investigated the complaint. However, what the LSO does is something close to an appeal, where the solicitor has no right to make representations, yet the decision of the LSO can have a profound impact on the solicitor concerned.



I am currently involved in a case where a solicitor-client was severely reprimanded by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The matter was referred to the LSO, who referred the matter back to the authority to explain its decision. It then referred the case to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Despite the fact that the client accepted the reprimand, the authority took the view that the LSO's verdict operated to set aside its earlier decision.



It is strange that in policing the legal profession in a way that should be the bastion of fairness and justice, there is neither for the solicitor. With an unfair system in place, it is hardly surprising that more and more clients complain. They know there is no sanction against them if their complaint is not upheld, but their solicitor will be put to such inconvenience, he will be punished whether he is culpable or not.



I accept that clients must have redress against solicitors who do wrong, but I do advocate a restoration of fairness and a halt to the further erosion of our ordinary human right to be fairly treated.



David J Moore, Rodgers & Burton, London