The Legal Services Complaints Commissioner (LSCC) Zahida Manzoor has again hit out at the Law Society’s handling of complaints as the threat of further financial sanctions looms over Chancery Lane.
Unveiling her annual report for 2006-07 today (10 July), Manzoor said attempts by both the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to speed up complaints-handling had impacted on quality of service for consumers.
Manzoor said: “There has been a mixed performance this year. I welcome the improvements in how quickly complaints are handled and the effort that has gone into achieving this, which is good news for the consumer. However, any improvements in the time it takes to handle complaints have to be viewed within the context of a poorer performance in the area of quality.”
She added: “It concerns me that some complaints are not being handled in line with the Law Society’s own policies.”
During the last 12-month period, the LCS and the SRA closed 20,364 complaints at a cost of £36m. However, as revealed by Legal Week (22 March), the LCS is in line for substantial fines after missing some of its quality targets to 31 March, 2007.
Last year Manzoor fined Chancery Lane £250,000 for missing performance targets. The society has since ploughed cash into improving its complaints-handling functions, including the installation of a new £3m high-tech case management system.
The LCS and the SRA will provide a final representation to Manzoor before she decides later this summer whether to impose financial penalties.
