Law and Rights
This section covers ADR options for:
Legal services
Police
Prisons
Human rights
Legal services
Most people in the UK receive their legal services from solicitors, or sometimes from barristers. If you have a complaint about your solicitor or barrister, you should first take it up with the individual or the firm concerned, so they have a chance to try to put things right.
Although all legal practitioners are required to have a complaints procedure, not all of them will deal with your complaint well. If you are not happy with the way your complaint has been dealt with, you may want to take things further.
In England and Wales
If you want to complain about your solicitor, go to the Legal Complaints Service
If you want to complain about your barrister, go to the Bar Standards Board
If you want to complain about a legal executive, go to ILEX Professional Standards
If you are unhappy with the way any of these complaints bodies have dealt with your complaint, you can go to the Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales.
In Scotland
If you want to complain about any legal practitioner go to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
In Northern Ireland
If you want to complain about a solicitor go to the Law Society of Northern Ireland
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) was set up in January 2007 to regulate solicitors in England and Wales. Some complaints about solicitors’ misconduct may be passed to the SRA to deal with.
Taking court action
If you want to take your legal services provider to court, there is a pre-action protocol for professional negligence.
Like all the pre-action protocols, it sets out what the court expects you and the other side to do before going to court. Basically, this usually means that you are expected to exchange information, attempt to settle the dispute, and consider ADR, before making a court application. If you don’t do this, the court can impose cost sanctions.
The full protocol is available on the Pre-action protocols website.
Complaints about courts
Complaints about the courts should be raised directly with the Courts Service in England and Wales, the Scottish Courts Service, or the Northern Ireland Courts Service.
If the issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you can make an ombudsman complaint about the way the courts are run. This will include things such as delay or misinformation, but not the decisions judges make, or policy issues. Your complaint should go to:
the Parliamentary Ombudsman in England and Wales
the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
the Northern Ireland Ombudsman
top
Police
For information on making a complaint about police behaviour, see Advicenow or Advice Guide. It is a good idea to get advice from a CAB, Law Centre or solicitor before taking action against the police.
You are normally expected to make your complaint to the local police first. If they do not deal with the complaint to your satisfaction, or if they refuse to record your complaint, you can go to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). In serious cases, you can go straight to the IPCC.
The IPCC also has the power to decide to start an investigation itself, even without a complaint from an individual. This has happened in a number of high profile cases, especially those which involve the death of a member of the public.
The IPCC is overseen by independent members, including its chair and deputy chair. None of the members of the IPCC Board are former police officers.
There is very clear information on how to complain about the police on the Independent Police Complaints Commission website.
Complaints about the police in Northern Ireland are dealt with by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (Police Ombudsman (NI)). In Scotland, there is no independent ADR mechanism for these disputes; complaints about police are dealt with by the Scottish Prison Complaints Commissioner (see below).
For complaints about the police there can be a tension between individual redress for a complainant, and disciplinary action on police misconduct. If the focus is on disciplinary action against a police officer, rather than on redress for the person complaining, complainants can feel sidelined. Both the IPCC and the PONI try to deal with this by promising to keep complainants informed about what is going on at all stages of the investigation.
top
Prisons
In England and Wales, complaints about the Prison Service and the National Probation Service are dealt with by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
You can complain about discipline in prisons, prisoners’ property, transfers and allocations, harassment and bail conditions.
The ombudsman's remit was expanded in April 2004. Since then, all deaths in prisons, probation hostels and immigration detention accommodation are investigated by the PPO.
Complaints about Scottish prisons are dealt with by the Scottish Prisons Complaints Commissioner. Details can be found in the Justice section of the Scottish Government website. Complainants must first have used the prison's internal complaints procedures.
top
Human rights
Human rights issues arise in all areas of our lives - housing, employment, education, our relationship with the state and our position as prisoners. The Human Rights Act (HRA), came into force in October 2000. This incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into UK law. Section 6 places a legal obligation on all public authorities not to breach an individual's ECHR rights. Anyone who feels that their ECHR rights have been breached can take the public body to court or tribunal in the UK, rather than having to go to the European court, as was previously the case.
The Act means that individuals can pursue complaints against public bodies, either in court or through the public-sector ombudsmen. In some cases, damages can be obtained. In 2009 the Government published the Equality Bill.
The UK government has established the Equality and Human Rights Comission to champion equality and human rights in the UK. The EHRC began operating in October 2007, and brought together the work of three previous equality commissions - the Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission. From April 2009 the EHRC has funded the Disability Conciliation Service to conciliate disputes about discrimination in the provision of goods and services, education and employment.
top
Revised May 2009
