Society, Ombudsman clash over compensation
26 Nov 04
Legal Services Ombudsman goes public over awards for trouble and inconvenience
The Scottish legal watchdog has criticised the amount of money awarded to two complainers by the Law Society of Scotland as compensation for its poor handling of complaints against solicitors.
In separate notices in the Scotsman and Herald newspapers, Linda Costelloe Baker, the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman, made it clear that she was unhappy that the Society had paid over less than she had recommended.
In one case Mrs Costelloe Baker had recommended £500 as compensation to a man, Mr N, for trouble and inconvenience caused, but the Society allowed £200. In the other, the Society paid £200 to Mrs L against the Ombudsman's recommendation of £400.
Mr N's case arose from a complaint relating to his mother's executry. The Ombudsman had initially criticised the Society for not recognising that Mr N as well as his father was entitled to complain in his own right. The Society accepted this but then ruled that the complaints had already been dealt with through his father's complaints. Mrs Costelloe Baker considered this decision reasonable but proposed the payment in view of the trouble and inconvenience caused to Mr N over a 21 month period.
In her notice Mrs Costelloe Baker said: “I thought that the £200 the Law Society was willing to pay did not take into account the aggravation and inconvenience caused to Mr N, and 21 months of his wasted time.
“My reason for publishing this Notice is that I am concerned that the Law Society is refusing to comply with an increasing proportion of my recommendations that complainants should be adequately compensation if the Law Society has caused loss, inconvenience or distress in a poorly handled complaint investigation.”
In Mrs L's case, due to administrative oversights the Society had failed properly to carry out the Ombudsman's recommendations as to the procedure to follow and Mrs L had had to go back to the Ombudsman more than once to ensure this was done.
The Society said today that it was disappointed that the Ombudsman had chosen to publicise the cases in this way and that it had disagreed with compensation ordered by the Ombudsman in only 5% of cases.
In a statement it said: “In reaching its decisions the Society believes the level of compensation it agreed to pay accurately reflected the level of inconvenience caused by its handling of the complaints.”
It added that the Society remains committed to modernising the way it handles complaints from the public about their solicitor and works closely with the Ombudsman, consumer organisations, the Scottish Executive, and others to make these improvements.