The Law Society’s legal action against the Office for Legal Complaints and the government to determine whether employment protection rules apply to staff at the Legal Complaints Service was heard in the High Court last week.

In December 2009, the Society issued proceedings seeking a declaration as to whether the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) will apply to the 371 LCS staff currently employed by the Law Society when the OLC takes over ­complaints-handling later this year.

The OLC and justice minister Bridget Prentice maintain that the TUPE rules, which would protect the jobs of the LCS staff by enabling them to move automatically to the new body, do not apply. They declined to comment before the judgment.

Law Society president Des Hudson said the OLC’s proposed approach to staffing the new organisation was not fair to existing complaints-handling staff and would not secure value for money for the professions that fund the OLC.