Ombudsman calls for new standards
25 Jun 07
Annual report urges service improvements ahead of new Complaints Commission
The Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates need to improve their focus on the consumer ahead of the changeover to the new Scottish Legal Services Complaints Commission, according to the annual report of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman for 2006-07, published today.
In her report the Ombudsman, Jane Irvine, whose office will be abolished when the Commission comes into operation, states that she welcomes the change in focus that the new Commission will bring, but urges both professional bodies to take the initiative to improve their services to consumers ahead of enforced change from the Commission.
Three key improvements
Ms Irvine has three main recommendations to achieve this.
First, the professions should address the legitimacy of using different tests for different types of complaint. At present misconduct allegations require to be proved to the criminal standard, beyond reasonable doubt, whereas inadequate professional services requires only the civil standard of balance of probabilities.
Questioning whether the criminal test should be used within a system concerned with regulating professionals, the Ombudsman believes "that we must move towards a civil model, with earlier recognition that practice and conduct must be improved, allied with appropriate outcomes that suit all parties". She points out that other regulators such as the General Medical Council are using "good modern thinking" in moving towards a flexible application of the civil standard for all areas.
Secondly, she says, both bodies "have to find ways of communicating the standards their members work to much more clearly". The Society's code of conduct is "weakened by lengthy definitions and exclusions", nor do its practice rules and guidelines provide a clear framework of quality standards; and the Faculty's single code is "comprehensive, but arguably too long".
Finally, Ms Irvine calls for a system that permits concerns over fees charged and service quality to be resolved together. "In effect the consumer is saying that they did not receive the quality of service they paid for, yet the profession persists with a system which differentiates the two. I don’t think this can be justified". Practice rules should be changed so that solicitors cannot take fees from client accounts without explicit prior agreement.
The good and bad
As regards actual performance, of the 451 cases reviewed by her office that involved solicitors, the Ombudsman found the Society's investigation to be satisfactory in 57% of these, "generally satisfactory" in 15% but open to criticism in 28%. The relatively few cases arising from the Faculty produced figures of 64%, 18% and 18% respectively.
She commends the Society's policies on diverse needs, its openness of procedures and its record keeping, as well as a "significant improvement" in meeting time targets and an increased willingness to engage in dialogue, but calls for improvements in various areas, including more resources for explanation and conciliation, clarity of roles of reporters and case managers, clarity over what amounts to inadequate professional service. The Ombudsman would like to see less reliance on adversarial procedures and on rules and guidance that need modernisation.
Philip Yelland, Director of Regulation at the Law Society of Scotland, said the Society was encouraged by the Ombudsman's recognition of improvements in its complaints handling system and would strive to improve further the way it handled complaints in advance of the Complaints Commission coming into effect. "We want to help ensure a smooth handover of service complaints to the Commission and are working towards this."
He added: "Those areas of concern featured in the report have been raised by the Ombudsman and discussed with the Society in the past year during regular meetings and action has been taken on many points. There is already a commitment to establishing a set of standards for the profession and a Society working group will have proposals in place by the end of this year or early 2008. This work is part of the organisation's overall strategy and the continuing modernisation and improvement of the services it offers both to the public and profession."
The report is on the Ombudsman's website www.slso.org.uk .