MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
News Release issued by The Government News Network on 19 June 2007
The Legal Services
Ombudsman for England and Wales, Zahida Manzoor CBE, in her Annual
Report, has said that the Government's aims in the Legal
Services Bill are laudable.
However she has voiced concerns about the detail and
implementation of the Bill, which is currently going through
Parliament. She has urged the Government to ensure that all new
arrangements demonstrate how and why they represent an improvement
for consumers in comparison to the existing system for complaint handling.
Ms Manzoor says the reforms must deliver what was intended for
the consumer and the profession. She is particularly concerned
that the House of Lords has made amendments which may attack the
very core of the principles laid down in the Bill. If those
amendments stand, the proposed Legal Services Board's ability
to act as an overarching regulator will be weaker than those
originally envisaged.
She also says that complaints handling will continue largely
unchanged under the Lords' amendments if they remain and
therefore asks the Government to consider whether the set up costs
of the new arrangements, estimated to be in excess of £32million,
are cost effective or viable.
Ms Manzoor reports that this year she was not satisfied with 32%
of the cases reviewed by her, where consumers had complained about
the service received from the Law Society. Overall the Ombudsman
found that the Law Society's performance to be well short of
where a modern, customer focussed organisation should be.
Ms Manzoor reported that she was satisfied in 84% of cases
reviewed by her where consumers had complained about the service
received from the General Council of the Bar.
The Ombudsman reported that her own office had once again
exceeded the Government's target of issuing 90% of reports in
6 months. 99.9% of her reports were issued within 6 months.
Notes to Editors:
1. The Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman completed 1,886
investigations into complaints between 1 April 2006 and 31 March
2007 and 1,783 new cases were accepted during that period. The
average turnaround time, for investigation of complaints by the
Ombudsman (from the receipt of the professional body's file)
was 2.4 months.
2. The total amount awarded in compensation was £98,614 with an
average of £411 per award.
3. Complaints about solicitors comprised 89% of the
Ombudsman's workload.
4. The Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales is
independent of both the Government and legal profession. The
Ombudsman provides an independent check on the complaint-handling
activities of the Law Society, as well as the General Council of
the Bar, the Institute of Legal Executives, the Council for
Licensed Conveyancers, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
and the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys. The current Ombudsman,
Ms Zahida Manzoor CBE, was appointed in March 2003.
5. Copies of the Annual Report of the Legal Services Ombudsman
are available from the website at http://www.OLSO.ORG
ENDS