Complaints track

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has a penchant for accentuating the negative when it comes to client service. I said as much in this column a year ago, but the panel’s latest tracker survey underlines my point.

The watchdog’s press release rails against ‘inadequate’ complaints-handling, but it is a moot point whether the ‘robust regulatory intervention’ called for is merited. More than half of consumers know how to complain, which doesn’t seem so bad. And surely it is conceivable that many of the 20% who don’t have not assimilated the signposting, probably because they do not anticipate a problem.

The panel is concerned that a third of those who do know how to complain, don’t trust their provider to deal with their complaint properly. That seems serious, but it’s human nature. In a ‘consumer’ transaction, some customers/clients are always going to be sceptical about the good faith of the supplier about whom they have just complained. I’m not sure what solicitors are supposed to do about this. It’s why the Legal Ombudsman scheme exists.  

Since 2018/19, moreover, solicitors have been subject to the SRA Transparency Rules – and the data suggests the situation is improving. Nine out of 10 firms said last year that they display details of their complaints procedure, up sharply on 2022. Solicitors also have to supply details to the regulator of first-tier complaints and how they are resolved.

Spot checks have admittedly exposed a few that don’t comply with the rules. But like the ombudsman, that’s what the checks – and fines – are there for.

Underplayed in the panel’s press release is more welcome and perhaps more significant news. Nearly nine out of 10 consumers said they were satisfied with the service provided by their lawyer, up two percentage points in a year and nine percentage points since the tracker survey was first conducted. Satisfaction with outcomes is at 89% – the joint-highest ever – and has risen in the past 12 years in every area of law.

To give the panel its due, dialling up the criticism is intrinsic to its raison d’etre. A captured watchdog is tame indeed. But don’t let anyone tell you that solicitors – or the vast majority of them at least – are not doing a good job.