“The pressure and anxiety around complaints in property law is huge”

The pressure and anxiety around complaints in property law is huge.

Many professionals who contact LawCare with mental health concerns do so when there's been a complaint from a client, they've been reported to the SRA, or where they've had to notify their insurers.

Legal professionals often find these situations really difficult to handle. We tend to have a perfectionist mindset where every ‘i’ is dotted, every ‘t’ is crossed, and there's no room for error.

Residential conveyancing handles some of the largest legal transactions that happen across the country by volume and scale. So, automatically, there’s a higher likelihood of complaints because there are more clients, more transactions, and more emotional investment.

Ryanair and EasyJet are huge airlines that carry millions of people every year. Serving such high volumes, it’s inevitable they’ll receive more complaints due to the sheer number of customers.

Similarly, in law, if you have a thousand clients per year, you're more likely to face complaints than a firm that has ten.

I was at an insurance conference recently, and they displayed a pie chart to show where legal sector claims come from – Lockton say 46% came from residential conveyancing.

It’s no surprise that mental health challenges arise when a sector with a higher volume of complaints meets a high-pressure profession. In law, where perfectionism is common, this combination can be tough to navigate.

What to do when a complaint arises

If you’re struggling to come to terms with a complaint, start by talking to someone who can offer reassurance and perspective. A lot of lawyers tell us that simply getting the issue off their chest makes them feel a lot better.

If the complaint is serious and likely to arise in a claim or a report of professional misconduct, it’s better to notify your insurers and self-report to your regulator, so you can take proactive steps to minimise any further negative consequences.

Getting advice from an experienced peer who’s been in a similar position can also help reiterate that it’s possible to face this challenge and come through the other side. Remember, there isn't a legal professional out there who hasn't made a mistake or had something go wrong in their career.

Just because this situation went wrong, it doesn't mean you're a bad lawyer or you're never going to work again. You have to deal with it then learn from it, so you become a better lawyer from the experience.

Once you’re ready to tackle the complaint, really engage with the process and maintain good communication with the client. By burying your head in the sand or not addressing a complaint, it only makes things worse.

Pause, take a minute, and try to empathise with the perspective of your client to understand where the complaint has come from and how you can address it clearly and transparently.

Remember, your client is in a highly emotive scenario. They want the keys to that property. They've borrowed a lot of money and might have been saving for ten years to get their deposit. They may have tried to buy three other places that fell through. For them, there's a lot riding on this transaction. With that, comes more emotional sensitivity to the information you share, and a higher likelihood for complaints.

Most complaints centre around, ‘I didn't get a response’... ‘I didn't hear from you’... ‘you didn't explain this.’ So, if you’re able to understand and address this challenge, you’ll be better equipped to handle complaints, but also to avoid them - prevention is better than finding a cure.