The Law Society and the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) have reacted to news that Legal Services Complaints Commissioner Zahida Manzoor is to levy a fine of £275,000 in relation to its complaints handling plan for 2008/09.

Law Society chief executive Des Hudson says: 'We disagree with the commissioner's decision.'

'The fact is that the Legal Complaints Service has delivered a year on year improvement in terms of quality and speed with which it handles complaints.'

'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.'

Professor Shamit Saggar, Chair of the Board of the Legal Complaints Service, says the decision was 'completely unjustified' and distorted the true picture of the effectiveness of the organisation.

Professor Saggar says: 'By any reasonable measure this is a disproportionate action by the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner that brings no benefit to either the legal profession or consumers of legal services. You do not fine a successful organisation, let alone one that in fact leads the way in consumer redress.'

'We recently published results that clearly showed we were performing at levels only attainable by the very best consumer redress organisations. The plan that has attracted today’s financial sanction built on those already impressive performance levels and would have delivered further improvements in our service.'

'These improvements have been recognised by leading consumer champions such as the National Consumer Council and Which?.'

Deborah Evans, Chief Executive of the Legal Complaints Service, says: 'It is important when developing a complaints handling plan that we do not make false promises. We didn't – we set stretching targets but not ones that it would be impossible to achieve.'

Notes to editors

The Board for the Legal Complaints Service, appointed in January 2006, comprises 14 members including Chair, Professor Shamit Saggar.

During the last plan year – April 2007 to March 2008 – the LCS was tasked with having no files open over 12 months old. At the end of the year, 31 March 2008, LCS had just four files open older than 12 months, each with justifiable reasons. This means LCS closed 99.85 per cent of files within 12 months. The three month target, which called for 67 per cent of cases to be closed within this timeframe, was also met.

This closure picture compares to figures from just three years ago which shows that LCS had around 900 cases more than 12 months old. Customer satisfaction with the service has risen from 70 per cent to more than 85 per cent during the same period.

When benchmarked against other highly respected consumer redress organisations the performance of LCS is highly favourable. In regard to closure within three months the 65 per cent figure achieved by LCS stands alongside 35 per cent achieved by the Financial Ombudsman Service in 2006/07. In regard to 12 month closures LCS is now at 100 per cent whilst the latest figures available from FOS shows them at 85 per cent. The Pensions Ombudsman Service is seeking to achieve 98 per cent in 2009. In regards to quality, other organisations do not publish detailed figures.

This plan year, LCS delivered impressive improvements in quality performance. They were:

• Q1 acknowledgements – 92.3 per cent (65 per cent 06/07)
• Q2a substantive response – 86.2 per cent (78.5 per cent 06/07). This is not a direct comparison because the 06/07 target was against 55 day response. This result was achieved against a target level that was increased and a timeframe that was reduced to 45 days.
• Q2b standard information – 97.1 per cent (40 per cent 06/07)
• Q3 sufficient information – 90.6 per cent (81.7 per cent 06/07)
• Q4 customer updates – 79.9 per cent (61.7 per cent 06/07)
• Q5 special payments – 84.4 per cent (48 per cent 06/07)

For more information contact:

Steve Rudaini
Press Officer
The Law Society
Telephone: 020 7320 5811
E-mail: steve.rudaini@lawsociety.org.uk

Bob Walker
Head of Communications
Legal Complaints Service
Tel: 01926 822131
Mobile: 07816 929365
E-mail: bob.walker@legalcomplaints.org.uk