Improving service by resolving complaints effectively
A perception of poor complaints handling by the legal profession was one of the primary drivers for the programme of legislative reform. In response, a fundamental requirement of the Legal Services Act 2007 is that approved regulators must ensure legal service providers have effective procedures in place for the resolution of complaints. The Act also requires approved regulators to undertake effective enforcement activity to make sure legal service providers comply with this requirement. The Legal Services Board maintains a direct oversight role in monitoring approved regulators effectiveness at regulating first-tier complaints handling.
These provisions recognise that consumers often engage with legal services during the most sensitive times of their lives. Whether they are transferring property, defending their reputation or fighting for their freedom, people’s contact with lawyers tends to be at their most vulnerable and critical periods. Analysis of consumer attitudes demonstrates that most clients of legal service providers are satisfied with their experience. However, an urgent priority for those concerned with the health of the legal services sector and the public esteem of lawyers is to ensure that robust complaints and redress mechanisms are available for those whose experience falls short.
We are working to ensure there is an improved customer experience of legal services with swift and effective redress if things go wrong. The Legal Ombudsman has been created under the Act to make sure users of legal services can go to an independent and impartial Ombudsman to resolve disputes involving their lawyer. The Legal Ombudsman commenced operation on the 6 October 2010 as the single body for all consumer legal complaints. This will help address many of the concerns but there remain a number of areas where legal services providers can make improvements to their own complaints handling procedures.
Guidance and Requirements
On 30 November 2009 the LSB sent a letter to all Approved Regulators setting out how it is taking forward this crucial area of work. We set out our intention to introduce specific requirements, using our statutory power, to ensure that all legal service providers make it clear to their clients that they have a right to complain and to whom. The new signposting requirements aim to ensure that consumers understand both their right to complain should a lawyer provide an unsatisfactory service, and if not resolved by the provider, their right to escalate the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
On 14 May 2010, following consultation with stakeholders, the LSB sent a letter to approved regulators responding to issues raised and setting out the intention to publish the final wording of the signposting requirements.
In tandem with this work we have also developed outcomes that consumers should reasonably be able to expect from complaints handling from their legal service provider. These outcomes have been published as Guidance under the Act which means that approved regulators must seek to achieve these outcomes through their regulatory arrangements.
The Signposting requirements and Guidance on first-tier complaints handling was published in a decision document on the LSB website in May 2010 and came into force on 6 October 2010.
Approved regulators must also develop systems that can spot trends in complaints and create learning points. This is where robust complaints-handling systems perform an important role not just in relation to individual cases, but also in contributing to the wider health of the marketplace. Data relating to complaints is an important source of information for the profession to measure and improve its own performance.
On 29 July 2010 the LSB held a data collection workshop to emphasise the role of data collection in regulation and facilitate further dialogue between stakeholders to identify and coordinate some of the key data sources available to approved regulators. The overall objective was to assist approved regulators to develop a rigorous and robust evidence base to inform their regulatory activities, including policy development, enforcement, education and standard setting. The full report of the workshop can be accessed through the following link LSB Complaints: Data Collection Workshop report.
An important objective of the complaints handling programme is to make more consumers aware of their rights of complaint and feel confident that they will have their complaint dealt with effectively at the first-tier and, if not, by the Legal Ombudsman. In addition effective first-tier complaints handling should result in an improvement in consumer satisfaction with the provision of legal services where complaints data is recognised by legal service providers as an opportunity to respond to consumer demand in relation to services offered, standards of customer service and the quality of legal advice consumers receive. This should promote public confidence in the profession and reassure consumers that they can obtain redress when the service falls short.
In March 2011 the LSB published the results of a review into the progress approved regulators are making in ensuring first-tier complaints-handling arrangements are fit for purpose. This includes the steps approved regulators have, and are, taking to meet the requirements of both the Legal Services Act 2007 and the guidance issued by the LSB. The review has looked at the requirements that each approved regulator has implemented to ensure effective first-tier complaints-handling arrangements, whilst providing an overview of the level of compliance with the 2007 Act. The report identified a number of issues that are common across the sector and also sets out matters specific to individual approved regulators. Its findings show that, whilst good progress has been made in bringing approved regulators’ arrangements into compliance with the Act, there are concerns about capacity for data collection – and therefore their ability learn from complaints patterns – as well as assessment methodologies.
During March 2011 the LSB wrote to each approved regulator in reference to the findings.
The LSB also commissioned new research to find out the challenges consumers face when the service they receive from their lawyer falls short of expectations. A report of the research was published on 9 June 2011. The research suggests that consumers struggle to identify how to go about making a complaint and less than half found the procedure easy to understand. A key message from the findings was also that many lawyers are missing the opportunity to learn from complaints.
The LSB wrote to all approved regulators on 9 June providing them with copies of the report and the data tables so that they can analyse the results in detail, including those for the lawyers they regulate. The LSB has said we expect approved regulators to build on the study, both with their own consumer research and crucially through communication, supervision and appropriate enforcement action.
Relevant consultations
• LSB/OLC informal consultation Towards establishing the Office for Legal Complaints. Consultation closed 7 September 2009.
Timeline
Useful links:
- History of the Reforms
- Letter of the 30 November from LSB to Approved Regulators regarding complaints handling
- Letter of 14 May 2010 from LSB to approved regulators responding to issues raised in relation to the signposting requirements and notifying them of the intention to publish.
- Report of the data collection workshop held at the LSB on 29 July 2010
- First-tier Complaints Handling Report published on 9 June 2011
Relevant Contact
Project Manager: Lucas Ford Lucas.Ford@legalservicesboard.org.uk 020 7271 0093