UK's Legal Services Ombudsman Releases Annual Report

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

18 July 2005

In her office's annual report, released last week, the UK's Legal Services Ombudsman, Zahida Manzoor praised the Law Society for its progress in some areas of its complaints handling procedures.

According to the report, the number of complaints lodged against solicitors remained, at 17,074, almost the same as the previous year.

Ms Manzoor stated that the Law Society had done well to keep pace with incoming complaints and still reduce its backlog. However, she went on to add that there were still "substantial delays" in the handling of some cases, and that the Society still had "a long way to go to ensure consumers are the real focus, rather than systems and processes".

The report additionally stated that the Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman (OLSO) was satisfied with the Law Society's handling of complaints in 62% of cases (up from 53% in 2004-04). However, this is still below the government-agreed target of 75%.

Speaking to the Law Gazette, Law Society chief executive, Janet Paraskeva announced that:

"We are pleased that Ms Manzoor recognises the progress the Law Society has made and that we are handling complaints more speedily, closing more complaints per month than we receive. More than half (55%) of cases were closed within three months."

She added: "The Legal Services Ombudsman’s own quality index has also improved by 9%, but we recognise that there is still more to do to ensure that all our customers receive the high-quality service they deserve."

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