THE Law Society is facing an unprecedented fine of up to £1 million 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 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 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.”

TARGETS

• By the end of next March for the Law Society to have no more than 20 cases in the live caseload open for 15 months or more
• For 80 per cent of cases to receive a substantive response within 60 days
• For 80 per cent of consumers to be contacted every 30 days within the lifetime of a case

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