Dear Sir or Madam,
I have today received a response from Kath Welton,
the Corporate
Services Manager of the OLSO. It is pasted below after the
"=====".
It is clearly an unsatisfactory answer.
Please state which of
the following are true:-
1. The Legal Services Ombudsman is the SAME
person as the Legal
Services Complaints Commissioner.
2. Ms. Manzoor
in her role as LSCC is responsible for the setting
the targets which included
the target of "No significant case
failings"
3. Ms. Manzoor MUST be
able to answer the questions.
4. The OLSCC relies (to a large extent) on
the findings of the OLSO
in assessing these targets.
5. The OLSO would
HAVE to know what a constitutes a "Significant
Failing" or it cannot
accurately report to its OWN Head of
Organisation - information the "Head"
needs in BOTH her roles
Will the OLSO therefore, PLEASE, answer the
original questions,
even if you need to seek the advice of your Senior Member
(Zahida
Manzoor).
Will the OLSO PLEASE also answer the
following:-
Would the OLSO regard it a "Significant Failing" if the SRA
were to
ignore evidence of what a prominent Law Lord termed "A most
serious
disciplinary offence" and simply REFUSE to investigate
complaints
against the Law Firm?
Would the OLSO regard it a
"Significant Failing" if the SRA
were to claim the REASON for their refusal
to investigate was that
the Law Society had dealt with matters three years
BEFORE the
misconduct took place - i.e. clearly an IMPOSSIBLE claim?
I
look forward to hearing from you with answers to all FOUR
questions. Many
thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Spenser Poultney
----- Original Message -----From: Legal Services OmbudsmanSent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 8:33 AM
Dear Mr Poultney
Thank you for your e-mail of 20 April 2009.
A definition of “no significant case failings” is not something that I can comment on. This is terminology used by the OLSCC who as you are probably aware are a totally separate office from OLSO.
In order to be as helpful as possible however, I would refer you to the Ombudsman’s Annual Reports which are available under the Office’s Publication Scheme. Hard copies can be purchased from The Stationery Office (www.tso.co.uk) or are free of charge on the OLSO website (www.olso.org).
These documents will show you, in the sections on the Law Society, statistics related to satisfaction ratings and the adverse findings of the Ombudsman. The LCS and SRA were not created until 2006 and therefore the Ombudsman’s 2007/2008 Annual Report was the first that she could report separately on the LCS and the SRA.
I trust you will find this helpful.
Yours sincerely
Kath Welton
[The URL for THIS email is http://www.lcs-test.co.uk/KWCSM.htm ]
Corporate Services Manager
[Home]
This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all copies and inform the sender by return e-mail.
Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. Any reply to this message could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in mind when deciding whether to send material in response to this message by e-mail.
This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be monitored, recorded and retained by the Ministry of Justice. E-mail monitoring / blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.
The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless in partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number 2007/11/0032.) On leaving the GSi this email was certified virus free.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for legal purposes.[Home]