Complaints Commission claims "solid foundation" in first annual report
8 Feb 10
Most cases in first nine months referred to Law Society of Scotland
A "solid foundation" for the future was claimed today by the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, describing the first nine months of its operation in its first annual report just published.
The report covers the nine months from 1 October 2008, when the Commission opened, to 30 June 2009. In that time the Commission dealt with 3,355 enquiries and received 1,063 complaints, of which 1,014 were passed to the Law Society of Scotland or Faculty of Advocates to deal with.
The Commission decided only to investigate a complaint itself if the transaction to which it related was instructed on or after 1 October 2008.
It also took on 203 "handling" complaints that would previously have been investigated by the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman.
Unseen work
Presenting the report, acting chief executive Rosemary Agnew said: "The volume of what we do is not reflected in the statistics in the report." She explained that numerous exchanges often had to take place with complainers before their case could be put to their lawyer, including explaining the transitional arrangements. The Commission made "substantial efforts" to advise and support complainers in the process and the Act did not always make clear how the Commission should proceed.
Another function of the Commission is to oversee and monitor the Master Policy (for professional indemnity insurance) covering Scottish solicitors, and the Guarantee Fund covering loss caused by dishonesty, and it has commissioned research into the experiences of individuals who have made claims, as a first step towards exercising this role.
Jane Irvine, chair of the Commission, said: "We are conscious that our setup costs came from the Scottish Government and our ongoing funding comes from a levy paid by individual practitioners and a levy paid when a complaint is upheld.
"With this in mind, the SLCC has taken a measured approach when recruiting staff and our workforce wiil only increase in line with the level of work coming to us."
Reserves
She added that although with hindsight the Commission would not have set such a high levy for its first period of operation, if it now charged for its full ongoing annual costs the levy would be £320 rather than the £275 proposed for the coming year. Its operating environment was "more uncertain" than that of similar bodies and it needed a substantial reserve to cover possible "catastrophic events".
These are understood to include legal challenges to its determination of whether cases appear to have enough substance to require further investigation, the outcome of which challenges could impact on the way the Commission operates.
The Law Society of Scotland however described the £1.56m surplus at the end of the period as "unacceptably high" and called for a cut in the levy for the next financial year.
Both the Society and the Commission encourage submissions from solicitors on the Commission's draft budget for next year. The Society asks that those to it are made by 17 February, to rlt@lawscot.org.uk .