Zahida Manzoor announced the decision today (3 June), declaring that the Law Society’s complaints-handling plan for 1 April, 2008, to 31 March, 2009, was inadequate.
The penalty represents the second fine in recent years for the Law Society, which was previously required to pay £220,000 for submitting an unsatisfactory plan for 2006-07.
The decision comes after Manzoor wrote to the Law Society in March advising that the plan submitted by its Legal Complaints Service (LCS) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) was inadequate. The body then accepted an opportunity to defend the plan before the penalty was imposed.
Manzoor said: “It is with regret that I have to announce a penalty for the Law Society – and for the second time in two years. It was the extent of the inadequacy of the plan which determined the imposition of a penalty at this level.
"In the plan submitted to me, the LCS did not sign up to improving its standards of service and meeting some quality targets until the last three or four months of the plan year – in reality 2009.”
She added: “While the Law Society carries the financial consequence of this failure to provide an adequate plan, the LCS must accept the lion’s share of the responsibility as it failed to demonstrate a commitment to achieve important targets set.”
Responding to the news, Law Society chief executive Des Hudson (pictured) said: “We disagree with the commissioner’s decision.
“The performance of LCS compares favourably to other similar organisations and on any reasonable measure LCS must now be regarded as an effective complaints handling body.”
