DECISION: commissioner praises improvement efforts but issues warning for next year


The Legal Services Complaints Commissioner this week admitted that it has 'taken too long' to announce her decision not to fine the Law Society for its complaints-handling performance in 2006/7 - and made it clear that a fine is likely next year if the Society fails again to meet its performance targets.



Zahida Manzoor also welcomed a proposal to inject up to £500,000 more into the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) - whose budget is £36 million - to fund an action plan aimed at making up ground lost to IT problems and flooding in recent months.



Ms Manzoor said she would have been justified in fining the Society for the failure of predominantly the LCS, but also the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), to deliver the complaints-handling plan for the year ended 31 March 2007. Five of the 13 targets were missed.



But she said: 'There have been success and failures this year. I have decided, at this stage in the Law Society's development, to give more weight to the commitment to improve evidenced by the restructuring of the organisation and efforts made to meet the targets. However, I remain seriously concerned that quality targets have been missed.'



The latest statistics indicate that the LCS is missing some of its 2007/08 targets, and Ms Manzoor told the Gazette: 'The Law Society and LCS should be in no doubt that I'd be unlikely to extend the same latitude [on not fining] again.'



She added that all sides agreed that seven months had been too long to reach a final decision, but she put this down to the extra time she had given the Society, LCS and SRA to make representations to her, while there were also delays in providing her with relevant documentation. Talks are underway to streamline next year's process.



Law Society chief executive Des Hudson welcomed the decision not to levy a fine. 'The continued improvement achieved by the LCS provides consumers with a faster and better service than ever before, and which compares favourably with other complaints-handlers,' he said.



'The Society is committed to supporting [this] continued improvement. Performance is kept under constant review and the management board of the Society considers any recommendations that are put forward by the LCS.'



LCS board chairman Professor Shamit Saggar said 2006/07 saw 'substantial improvements both to the timeliness and quality of the work done by the LCS'.



Neil Rose