NEGLIGENT HANDLING OF BRITISH LEGAL COMPLAINTS

The Law Society is facing an unprecedented fine of up to 1 million pounds after a legal ombudsman delivered a swingeing attack yesterday over its handling of complaints from the public. The professional body for 100,000 solicitors in England and Wales is accused of being too quick to "rely on its budget and resources" to improve complaints handling, rather than looking at how it can be more efficient. The criticisms come from Zahida Manzoor, the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner, who also castigates the society for failing to take appropriate action to make sure that people's complaints are handled speedily and efficiently.

The society now spends 19.3 million pounds a year on handling complaints over poor service, delays and lack of communication by solicitors. The annual total of complaints has been rising steadily and is predicted to reach 20,000 during the next 12 months. The backlog of outstanding cases stands at 5,985.

The criticisms come as the Government is drawing up legislation that will impose a new single complaints office over the legal profession. The Law Society and Bar will still tackle complaints in the first instance, with new "frontline" bodies to operate at arm's-length from the professions.

Yesterday the Law Society was terse in its response. A spokesman said: "The LSCC's decision is disappointing, because our proposals would significantly benefit consumers of legal services. They are ambitious and build on the achievements of recent years, which we are determined to continue. However, it would be irresponsible to accept targets that are unrealistic." The society says that, although the complaints total is rising, it is now giving an increased profile to its complaints service. The total is also a tiny fraction of the millions of transactions that solicitors handle each year. It also says that it now advertises for complainants to come forward and that a big rise in staffing and resources ploughed into complaints - 6 million pounds in two years - has helped to bring them down from a high of 17,300 in July 1999 to a third of that figure now. The latest clash between the society and Ms Manzoor comes after the society and the commissioner could not agree which targets for improving complaints handling were achievable.

Ms Manzoor was appointed in February 2004, with the task of monitoring the society's complaints system. She already held a separate watchdog role as Legal Services Ombudsman, charged with looking at the way the legal professional bodies deal with individual complaints from the public. As commissioner she can require the Law Society to submit a plan for improved complaints handling, but yesterday she said that the society's latest plan, to run from this month, was inadequate. "I am very disappointed to have to declare this plan inadequate, particularly after the joint working that has taken place between my office and the Law Society," she said. "How can I be assured that improvements will be made if the Law Society has still not identified what action it needs to take to deliver those improvements?" "Unfortunately, I have been left with no option as the plan neither includes all the targets I set, which I believe to be reasonable, nor does it aim to deliver sufficient improvements in complaints handling, which consumers and practitioners expect and deserve."

Ms Manzoor said that the society had failed to include all the targets she had set in its plan, such as that all new complainants, after this month, should be replied to within 60 days with confirmation of their complaint. She said: "The audit conducted by my office in September 2005 identified that some consumers were waiting on average three months before receiving written confirmation of the issues raised in their complaint." Ms Manzoor said that she had made clear at that time that "this level of service was unacceptable for the consumer" and had therefore set a target of two months, although she added that this was still too long in her opinion.

Yesterday Louise Restell, of Which? magazine, said: "Government proposals for a new, independent office for legal complaints are welcome, but must be fast-tracked to ensure consumers don't suffer any longer from such poor customer service."

Report here




MORE ON THE SLEAZY BRITISH LAW SOCIETY AND THEIR SLEAZY LAWYER PALS

Sick miners who complained about solicitors taking a slice of money from their compensation awards were "badly let down" by the Law Society, the legal services ombudsman ruled yesterday. In a scathing attack on its handling of complaints by miners and their families, the ombudsman cited numerous failings by the society, which is the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales. It is accused of failing to act impartially, pressuring complainants, failing to examine each case on its merits and failing to consider whether deductions from miners' compensation should be paid back in full.

The Law Society hit back yesterday, accusing the ombudsman of "misplaced" criticism and revealing that 45 solicitors from 10 law firms face disciplinary action in relation to their handling of miners' claims. It said that it had begun 49 separate investigations, "by far the biggest in the history of the Law Society", into solicitors' firms who took part in what has become the world's largest personal injury compensation scheme. Peter Williamson, chairman of the society's regulation board, said the figures were "powerful evidence of our determination to deal firmly with any misconduct related to the miners' compensation scheme". The society admitted yesterday, however, that seven years after it was first asked to investigate the handling of miners' claims, no solicitor has yet appeared before the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal.

All the cases concern the 7 billion pound scheme under which the Department of Trade and Industry has paid damages to former miners who suffer from chronic respiratory disease or a crippling hand condition called vibration white finger as a direct result of their work in the coal industry. More than 3 billion has already been paid to hundreds of thousands of claimants, and the solicitors handling the claims have been paid 728 million pounds for their work.

The complaints concern those solicitors who chose to deduct money from the compensation awarded to their clients in addition to the fees they were already being paid by the Government. Some took a slice of the damages as a "success fee", and others deducted "administration" costs. Tens of thousands of miners also saw money taken by solicitors for the benefit of claims-handling companies and two trade unions, the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) and the National Union of Mineworkers.

In a special report pubished today, the ombudsman, Zahida Manzoor, says that although the society has publicly pledged to examine each complaint individually and on its merits she has seen "little evidence to show that the Law Society has put into practice its intentions". She emphasises that many of the complainants are elderly and in poor health and often have limited knowledge or experience of legal matters. Ms Manzoor highlights complaints about one solicitors' firm that deducted money from its clients' damages in the form of a payment to a claims- handling company. When the Law Society contacted the solicitors' firm, it offered to make payments of 200 pounds as a goodwill gesture to each of the complainants, even though in many cases a higher sum of money - more than 350 pounds - had been deducted from their compensation awards. The ombudsman says that the Law Society "then spent its time attempting to get complainants to agree to (the) compensation payments".

Ms Manzoor has asked the Law Society to re-open the eight cases that she has investigated and to investigate what advice, if any, the solicitors offered to their clients about claims-handling agents' fees. The ombudsman's finding were welcomed last night by John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, who represents many of the miners whose complaints were investigated by Ms Manzoor.

Report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)