The Law Society's Client Care Programme
Background
In June 2008 the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner announced that she would be imposing a penalty of £275,000 on the Law Society following her decision to declare the complaints handling plan submitted by the Law Society for the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009 as inadequate.
On 4 March 2009, following a number of detailed discussions with both the Law Society and the Ministry of Justice, the Commissioner and the Law Society announced that they had reached a regulatory settlement whereby the monies will now be devoted to a range of Client Care measures costing £275,000, designed to promote diversity and excellence in the profession and to improve standards of client care and complaints handling.
Agreed measures
The measures agreed by the Commissioner and the Law Society include:
• Recruiting a Client Care Project Manager at a cost of £40,000.
• Project 1 - the Law Society committing £100,000 to establish a Consultancy Service.
• Project 2 - the Law Society will also launch a dedicated client care and complaints handling helpline.
• Project 3 - the Law Society will provide additional funding to the Solicitors’ Diversity Access Scheme.
Quarterly progress updates from the Law Society
March 2009 [PDF 27.9kb, 4 pages] 