REPORT: Law Society chief accuses Legal Services Ombudsman of 'misleading picture'

The Legal Services Ombudsman was last month accused of painting 'a misleading picture' of the performance of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS).

However, Zahida Manzoor has hit back at the allegation by Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva, saying it was 'disingenuous' as her observations were 'grounded in fact and present a reasonable interpretation of those facts'.

In a letter to Ms Manzoor released to the Law Society Council, Ms Paraskeva said the ombudsman had used her interim report (see [2003] Gazette, 27 November, 1) to give the impression that the OSS's performance is deteriorating 'when in fact the reverse is the case'.

The strongly worded letter said Ms Manzoor achieved this by choosing a period of comparison - January 2002 to September 2003 - 'which produces that effect, whilst being quite irrelevant to the period on which you are reporting (March to September 2003)'.

In the longer period, the number of cases in the system rose from 4,434 to 8,545.

However, Ms Paraskeva said that in July and September 2003, the OSS closed more cases than it received, and was only marginally behind in August.

This trend has continued into October and November, she added, when 2,788 cases were received and 3,381 closed.

She said these figures showed that Ms Manzoor was not justified in her claim that the OSS was failing to keep up with demand, and that this was clear when the report was written.

In a response letter to the Law Society, Ms Manzoor wrote that the issues raised came from a different interpretation of the facts.

She said the report 'clearly highlights the fact that over a very extended period of time, the OSS fell well short of keeping pace with the inflow of new complaints', adding that in the period of the report, the OSS's workload grew by a net 401 cases.

She reiterated the findings of the report, which described the improvement between July and September as encouraging, but said it was too early to draw any long-term conclusions, while noting that the OSS had received fewer cases than anticipated and missed all but one of its performance targets.

'On what basis could I have drawn the conclusion that your performance was improving?' Ms Manzoor asked in her letter.

However, she said if the level of improved performance can be sustained, 'I will be pleased to acknowledge this achievement in my next annual report'.

Law Society Council members expressed concern that Ms Paraskeva's letter indicated a serious deterioration in relations between the Society and the ombudsman.

Speaking to the Gazette, Ms Manzoor said she had been 'surprised' by the letter's tone, but insisted: 'I have no axe to grind with the Law Society.'

She added: 'I would like to feel the relationship [with the Society] would be a constructive and positive one...

Overall, our aim is one and the same.'

Ms Paraskeva said: 'The Law Society is keen to continue its constructive working relationship with the ombudsman, but that should not mean that we cannot enter into robust debate.'

Neil Rose