The Law Society is a body set up to promote and protect the interest of its members, who are solicitors. It would also like us to think that it regulates solicitors.
The bible says:
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. [Matthew 6:24]
Anyone who has been unfortunate enough to have any dealings with the Law Society, will know that they do not in fact regulate solicitors. Solicitors are not regulated at all.
How they Bull**** us:
“The Law Society has powers and responsibilities from Acts of Parliament and from professional rules of conduct to ensure that all solicitors observe proper standards of behaviour and service when dealing with their clients and other solicitors. These powers and responsibilities have been delegated to the Bureau to provide impartial and fair investigation of complaints.”
“Solicitors are in a position of trust. They provide advice on matters that are enormously important to their clients, so it is essential that their advice is expert, independent, efficient and courteous.”
“You should not worry about going to see a solicitor. Remember they are there to help you and offer you advice.”
“You should view your solicitor as a guide and advisor – providing expert help on the law and the legal system”.
“As a client you are entitled to expect high standards of professional service from your solicitor – supported by the high level of consumer protection provided by the solicitor’s profession.”
“As a client you have certain rights, for example your solicitor must act in your best interest.”
Have you ever wondered why simple tasks take solicitors so long to deal with?
“More often, the bill will be worked out on an hourly basis – the longer it takes, the more it costs.”
THE COMPLAINT’S PROCEDURE
Over the years the Law Society has set up various organisations and given them responsibilities to investigate complaints from the public. These organisations have very little powers and in practice the only purpose they serve is to obstruct the public and to introduce as long a delay as possible, before the public finally realises that they are being taken for a ride.
SCB [Solicitors Complaint Bureau]
The SCB was established by the Law Society in September 1986, to handle complaints about solicitors independently of the Law Society.
The SCB was heavily criticised for being too slow at dealing with complaints and having a tendency to find reasons for not handling complaints, rather than finding aspects of complaints that it could do something about.
OSS [Office of the Supervision of Solicitors]
The OSS was set up in September 1996 by the Law Society to replace the SCB.
Former Law Society President, Michael Mears, wrote:
“The OSS operates on the basis of the fiction that the vast majority of its customers are worthy citizens, a great numbers of them, however, are typical Mr and Mrs Modern Brit, wingers and grievance mongers whose primary object in making a complaint is to avoid paying the bill.”
Performance of The Law Society and The Office for The Supervision of Solicitors (OSS)
In spite of substantial new initiatives, the complaints-handling performance of the OSS has continued to deteriorate:
The OSS’ backlog has increased from 4,434 in January 2002, to 8,545 in September 2003;
The OSS currently has a total of 281 complaints within its caseload that are more than two years old, of which 28 are more than three years old;
The OSS is substantially underperforming in all but one of the performance targets set by the DCA for turnaround times, and has missed its satisfaction rating target by 18%.
CCS [Consumer Complaint’s Service]
As of 19 April 2004 the Law Society has again re-branded the SCB/OSS to the newly named Consumer Complaints Service [CCS].