Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
This page contains information about the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, including:
What it does
Advantages and disadvantages
Which complaints are eligible?
When can a complaint be considered?
Cost
Timescale
Procedure
Outcomes
What it does
The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) investigates complaints made by members of the public about services provided by legal practitioners in Scotland. It is independent of the legal profession, and opened for business on 1st October 2008.
Complaints about legal services in England and Wales are dealt with by the Legal Ombudsman.
Complaints about Legal Aid or the administration of the courts in Scotland are dealt with by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
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Advantages
- it is a single gateway for all complaints about legal practitioners in Scotland
- it is independent of the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates and of Scottish government
- it is free
- it offers the options of mediation, investigation or determination to resolve the complaint
- it is possible to get modest compensation for inconvenience, distress or loss
- it can direct practitioners to take action, adjust fees, or pay compensation
- it will feed back issues of concern and recommendations for good practice to the profession
Disadvantages
- you must take your complaint to the practitioner first
- the SLCC can refuse to take on complaints which it considers are frivolous, vexatious or without merit
- you can't complain about Judges, Sheriffs, the Scottish Legal Aid Board, the Scottish Courts Service or the police service
- the SLCC only make a recommendation to the Law Society of Scotland or the Faculty of Advocates - it can't force them to comply with its decisions
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Which complaints are eligible?
The SLCC can consider complaints about the service provided by a solicitor, advocate or commercial attorney operating in Scotland, but only if you have first taken your complaint to the practitioner concerned. If you are not happy with the way they have dealt with your complaint, you can go straight to the SLCC.
The SLCC can investigate complaints where the practitioner was instructed after 1 October 2008.
Complaints about conduct can be made to the SLCC, who will pass them to the relevant professional body for investigation - such as the Law Society of Scotland or the Faculty of Advocates. Complaints about the conduct of conveyancing and executry practitioners are passed to the Law Society of Scotland, as it is responsible for the regulation of these practitioners under the Public Appointments and Public Bodies (Scotland) Act 2003.
A 'handling complaint' is one about the way a professional body has dealt with the investigation of a complaint about a practitioner's conduct. If you are not happy about how the investigation into your complaint has been carried out, and the conduct complained of occurred on or after 1 October 2008, you can make a handling complaint to the SLCC.
The largest category of complaints to the SLCC in its first nine months involved residential conveyancing (buying and selling homes), followed by litigation and family law issues.
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When can a complaint be considered?
If you want to make a complaint about a solicitor or an advocate, the first step is to complain directly to the legal practitioner, or to the firm.
The SLCC provides a single gateway for all complaints about legal practitioners operating in Scotland, which means all complaints (including conduct) should be made to the SLCC in the first instance. The SLCC has the authority to oversee and monitor the way in which the professional bodies investigate conduct complaints. It also has the powers to monitor and to issue guidance to practitioners about dealing with legal complaints.
Complaints about service must be made within 12 months. Complaints about the handling of a complaint about professional misconduct must be made within 6 months.
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Cost
The scheme is free to complainants. It is funded by the legal profession.
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Timescale
Once you have made your complaint, the SLCC will contact you within 10 working days to let you know whether they will accept it. After that, the time taken will depend on whether both sides agree to mediation, or whether a full investigation is needed. The SLCC intends to publish targets for the time taken to resolve disputes, but has not yet done so.
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Procedure
Complaints must be made on the SLCC complaints form, and signed by the person complaining. You can download this form from the SLCC website - there is a link at the bottom of this page.
If your complaint is accepted by the SLCC, there are three options:
- If both sides agree, the SLCC can arrange mediation with an independent mediator
- If one or both sides don't agree to mediation, or if the mediation is unsuccessful, the SLCC will investigate the complaint
- If both parties do not accept the investigator's findings, a panel of Members of the SLCC will make a final determination
You can appeal to court if you are not happy with the final decision of the SLCC.
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Outcomes
If the SLCC upholds a services complaint it can take whatever steps it considers fair and reasonable in relation to:
- determining what fees and outlays are due to the legal practitioner
- directing the practitioner to rectify any error, omission or other deficiency at their expense
- directing the practitioner to take other action specified by the SLCC
- where someone has been directly affected, have the practitioner pay compensation
- where there is a competence issue, ensure that that is reported to the relevant professional organisation
The SLCC can order compensation up to £20,000, but it explains on its website that most compensation awarded is likely to be modest.
If the SLCC finds that a professional body has failed to handle your complaint properly, it can recommend that the professional body:
- provide you with more information
- exercise its powers in relation to the practitioner
- investigate the complaint further
- reconsider its decision
- pay a modest amount of compensation for inconvenience loss or distress caused to you by poor complaint handling
Where the SLCC upholds your complaint, the SLCC may recommend reimbursement of part or all of your costs such as stationery and postage.
The SLCC's Annual Report 2008-09 covers its first nine months of operation (October 2008 - June 2009). In that time it made no final determinations of complaints. It received 1,217 legal complaints, but only 154 of these were considered as to their eligibility (the vast majority were closed and referred back to the Law Society of Scotland because they were related to matters from before the start of the SLCC). At the time of the Annual Report 46 complaints had been assessed as eligible, and of these:
- 19 turned out to be about conduct and were referred to the regulator (eg the Law Society of Scotland)
- 1 was resolved through mediation
- 1 was awaiting mediation
- 1 was resolved and closed
- 19 were being investigated
- 5 had gone to the determination stage and were awaiting final decision
In that nine-month period the SLCC also dealt with a number of cases under the old ombudsman rules because they arose before October 2008. It accepted 180 of these cases and completed 160, of which 61 were upheld.
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November 2010
