Legal Complaints Service
Encyclopedia
In England and Wales
England and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

, the Legal Complaints Service is a body that formally investigates complaints about solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...

s. It is, in its turn, regulated by the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner
Legal Services Complaints Commissioner
In England and Wales, the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner is a statutory office that regulates solicitors, but not barristers. A Commissioner can be appointed by, and is answerable to, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice....

.

Background

Solicitors in England and Wales are both represented and regulated by the Law Society
Law society
A Law Society in current and former Commonwealth jurisdictions was historically an association of solicitors with a regulatory role that included the right to supervise the training, qualifications and conduct of lawyers/solicitors...

 and, before 2007, the Society investigated complaints about its members through its Legal Complaints Service (LCS). However, in September 2003, Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer
Charles Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton
Charles Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, PC is a British Labour politician, who became the Lord Chancellor and the first Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs in 2003...

, criticised the Society, saying:
As a result, in February 2004 the Lord Chancellor exercised his powers under the Access to Justice Act 1999 to appoint a Legal Services Complaints Commissioner to regulate the Society. In response to the Commissioner's criticisms, in 2005, the Law Society divided its functions among the Society, the Solicitors Regulation Authority
Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Solicitors Regulation Authority was launched on 29 January 2007. It is the regulatory body for more than 120,000 solicitors in England and Wales...

 and the Legal Complaints Service but by May 2006, the Society's efforts to remedy its own deficiencies were still giving concern to the Commissioner. As a result, a penalty of £220,000 was levied. The Commissioner subsequently recognised that progress was being made and on 22 February 2007, the Service came into being. In April 2007, the Commissioner advised the Society that their Complaints Handling Plan adequately addressed the concerns. However, in April 2008, the Commissioner reported that "Results show that despite some improvements in all target areas set, there are still failures ... to consistently apply their policies, processes and customer standards." On 3 June 2008, the Commissioner fined the Law Society £275,000 over the inadequacy of its complaints handling plan for the forthcoming year.

The Service

The Service is a complaints handling body, quasi-independent of the Society. It is still part of the Law Society, but it is said to operate independently. The services offered to consumers are confidential and free at the point of use, the profession having rejected the idea of charging a flat fee as do some other professional complaints services, for example that of architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

s. Where a complaint is upheld the firm complained of may be required to make a contribution to the costs incurred by the Service in dealing with the complaint. Each case is said to be looked at impartially, the Service working to find a solution acceptable to everyone concerned, including the lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

, who is a member of the Service's parent body, the Law Society.

The Service's Chief Executive, Deborah Evans, said:
The Service and Chief Executive are both steered by the Board for the Legal Complaints Service, chaired by Shamit Saggar..

Further criticism and reform

Chief Executive Evans has been criticised as actively seeking-out complaints about solicitors and as showing an excess of zeal in making work for her organisation in a bid to attract more funding.

Complaints handling was further criticised in Sir David Clementi
David Clementi
Sir David Cecil Clementi is a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. Clementi also holds positions on the boards of several large corporations, including Chairman of Prudential plc, one of Britain's largest insurance companies, and is a non-executive director on the board of governors of...

's 2004 report into regulation of legal services.

When the Legal Services Act 2007
Legal Services Act 2007
The Legal Services Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that seeks to liberalise and regulate the market for legal services in England and Wales, to encourage more competition and to provide a new route for consumer complaints...

 fully comes into force, the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner will be abolished and replaced with an Office for Legal Complaints which will supervise the complaints handling of solicitors, barristers and other legal professionals.
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