Let’s be honest, no one likes to receive complaints, though some businesses like to burnish their consumer-friendly credentials by pretending that they do. What matters though, ultimately, is how you deal with them.

Elizabeth France, chair of the Office for Legal Complaints, told me that one of the aims of the new body is nothing less than to change the way the legal profession views complaints. She hopes lawyers will ‘begin to see complaint-handling in a different light’ which, if not quite a shot across the bows, is certainly a nudge in the ribs.

For her, the time for debate is over. With the legislation in place, everyone has to come together to make things work and create a complaints-handling system which gives the client and customer more confidence in lawyers. The OLC wants to make sure the profession knows ‘how to say sorry’.

A laudable aim, certainly, but are solicitors really a lot worse than others in the way they handle complaints? Those that are, need to be aware that they are missing a trick. They need to see complaints-handling in the round, as part of the client care package, the cornerstone of which is (or should be) good service.

We all know that ever more pressure is being piled on practitioners and law firms as they fight to win and keep clients during a period of extraordinary market turmoil. But solicitors do need to make time to prepare for the new complaints-handling regime. There is plenty of help on offer from Chancery Lane. It’s worth a look.