This is NOT the official site of the LCS - their site may be found here
Please take part in our survey...
Resolving Complaints about solicitors ?
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This is NOT the official site of the LCS - their site may be found here |
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Please take part in our survey... |
Resolving Complaints about solicitors ? |
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The LCS-Test Survey is a serious on-line survey open to anyone who has made an official complaint about a solicitor in England or Wales in the past 10 years. You can make a real difference...
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Please take part in it |
For more than 30 years the Law Society has failed the public but, on 30th October 2007, the new Legal Services Act was granted Royal Assent. There will be a natural resistance by the Law Society and the "profession" towards improving - any improvements for the public, for the "consumer", will curtail the Gravy Train for those involved. This survey can help keep things moving in the right direction.
Results... The survey results are continuously available... they will grow over time...
Update! - 25 Results in 2 Weeks - we need MANY more!
These things take a while to get going ... please help ... early help means greater final success!
Do YOU know anyone who qualifies to take part?
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Please tell them about the survey There is a mail link off the main page |
For more reasons to "get involved" please check out our "History Page" - it is copied at the bottom of this page but you can read it in context here. Please help to make history and change the face of the Legal Complaints Service once and for all.
Do you run a website or other publication?
Please support us with a link to our survey. We can make a difference if only enough people hear about us. Year-on-year there are over 17,000 complaints raised about solicitors alone. We want everyone to hear about us. Below is a list of existing supporters. Please become one... just drop us an email...
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Your Logo Here |
Your URL Here We guarantee that this page will be copied on at least five unique web sites. Drive traffic to your site. Improve your Google and other search-engine ratings - it's EASY - just e-mail us |
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Time to stop paying |
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The Divorce Solicitor Trap supports the LCS-Test Survey http://divorce-solicitor-trap.co.uk/ Essential reading for anyone contemplating employing a solicitor for family matters. Warnings and advice. Good news letter. |
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We Name and Shame the Guilty Parties |
Name and Shame (UK) supports the LCS-Test Survey http://www.name-n-shame.co.uk/index.htm A great site covering Government, Councils, Law, Companies and more... |
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Parents4Protest supports the LCS-Test Survey http://www.parents4protest.co.uk/ Masses of real advice, superb links, dire warnings - don't miss it. |
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Families
Link INTernational supports the LCS-Test Survey Well established site with MANY links and a comprehensive A to Z of issues. |
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SOLICITOR.INFO supports the LCS-Test Survey A "solicitor ratings" site which collects and displays opinions about solicitors in the UK |
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Debtwise supports the LCS-Test Survey Practical advice and assistance with debts |
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Rough Justice supports the LCS-Test Survey http://www.roughjustice.org.uk/ Well written, simple advice and warnings based on personal experience. |
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CASIA |
Complaint Against Solicitors action for Independant Adjudication supports the LCS-Test Survey |
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Professional Rogues |
Professional Rogues (ScumRus) supports the LCS-Test Survey |
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Campaign Against DWP Corruption supports the LCS-Test Survey http://www.dwpcorruption.co.uk/ The Independent Watchdog for the Department for Works & Pensions! |
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Corrupt Lawyers supports the LCS-Test Survey http://corruptlawyers.co.uk/home.aspx Lots of information and some grim warnings! |
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Crooked Lawyers supports the LCS-Test Survey http://www.crooked-lawyers.net/ Exposing the Law Society's Protection Racket! |
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Solicitors From Hell (.co.uk) supports the LCS-Test Survey http://www.solicitorsfromhell.co.uk/ Superb "Name & Shame" site. Use it to find those to AVOID! Use it to warn others! Use it to make you feel BETTER! |
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"Solicitors from Hell" |
Solicitors From Hell (.com) supports the LCS-Test Survey http://www.solicitorsfromhell.com/ Another long-established site... a familiar theme "Solicitors From Hell" |
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COLIN PETERS |
THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION supports the LCS-Test Survey |
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The Legal-X-change supports the LCS-Test Survey... "good luck" :-) |
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| Legal Bullies | Legal Bullies www.legalbullies.co.uk supports the LCS-Test Survey | |
| ECHR-Action | ECHR-Action www.echr-action.co.uk supports the LCS-Test Survey | |
| My Scratch Domain | All @ www.arsefardle.co.uk/ support the LCS-Test Survey | |
| The links above are UK... | The problems with "lawyers" are world-wide. Fortunately, so is the Internet. We welcome links from our friends overseas... but let us start with a couple closer to home... | |
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Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers supports the LCS-Test Survey |
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| CROOKED LAWYERS |
Our Friends in Ireland support the LCS-Test Survey http://www.crookedlawyers.com/ Victims of the Legal Profession Society |
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LAWYERS OR GRAVE ROBBERS? |
Our Friends in Australia support the LCS-Test Survey http://www.lawyersorgraverobbers.com/index.html Serious enough to write a book about it all... |
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Good
Luck!
History Repeating? We'll do almost anything for Google ratings!
In brief... 1986 to 2007...
For many years the Law Society has been both "trade union" and "regulator" for solicitors. This dual and conflicting role has been completely ineffective at protecting the public and has been widely criticised. An official government-commissioned report from 1999 was actually called "The Willing Blindness Report" - the title alone speaks volumes.
In the past decade it seems that whenever government announced that the Law Society was in the “Last Chance Saloon” because of its failure to deal with the increasing number of complaints against Solicitors, the Law Society merely changed the name of its regulatory body. Since 1986 we have had... The Solicitors Complaints Bureau (SCB), The Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) and The Consumer Complaints Service (CCS)
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s (SDT - a division of the High Court) Annual Report to April 2007 reveals that only 67 Solicitors were struck off the Solicitors Roll when up to 17,000 Solicitors were reported to the Law Society year on year. Are 16,900+ complainants completely wrong or is this a really poor return?
Now we have The Legal Complaints Service (LCS) and the new Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA). It really does beg the question... Is there REALLY a difference THIS time or is it just another name change? It is our mission to find out.
Had enough history yet? [Return to the main page] [The latest reforms] [Links and references]
1975 to 2007... in more detail...
At the very top I have said "After more than 30 years" ... here's why...
About two years ago I came across a couple of official government pamphlets entitled
"Solicitors Act 1974 - First Annual Report of the Lay Observer 1975 - 1976" and
"Fourth Annual Report of the Lay Observer 1978" - Original prices 28p and 40p respectively.
These were NOT the documents I was looking for, but they proved interesting, nonetheless....
The office of "Lay Observer" (it seems) was set up as a result of the
Solicitors Act 1974 and the first person posted to this "office" was Rear Admiral Godfrey
Place. It was his job to sit with the Law Society and observe it's
complaints handling and write official reports on his observations.
Many of the observations of Rear Admiral Godfrey Place, the Lay Observer, with respect to solicitors costs and complaints were the SAME then as they are TODAY - despite 30 years, the Wolf Reforms, the Access to Justice Act, Willing Blindness and Clementi the very same problems dogged "the profession" in 2006 as did in 1976. How is this possible?
I do not know the history from 1978 to 1986. The Internet has many examples of the more recent history (and many more criticisms of the Law Society and the government) - more in the links and references section at the end of this page. Some are long and some are short. One succinct (but still much better than my opening paragraphs) comes from here. I have copied it below almost word for word and would like to thank the author - http://corruptlawyers.co.uk/
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; [Note:
this is particularly relevant to my case as I first complained to the Law
Society in September 2003 - it took them 3 months to even get started and after
9 months they had achieved nothing]
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]. [Note:
once again this is significant for the complaints raised here - the change of
name (may have, was certainly blamed) caused some delays. By then my MP,
Dan Norris, had written to the Law Society and my case was transferred to the Parliamentary
Casework Team - who did, if possible, even less.]
Had enough history yet? [Return to the main page] [Links and references]
The following is lifted from here...
http://www.legal-services-reform.co.uk/in_a_nutshell/a_bit_of_history
All of the links below have been modified to open in a new window. If you want to study this in detail (and follow the links) you might do well to use the link above and look at it directly on the government web site. You will get a lot more links that way too (if you can stay awake?)
March 2001: The Office of Fair Trading publishes its report – Competition in the Professions – recommending that the rules governing the legal profession in England & Wales should be a subject to competition law.
July 2002: The Governments publishes a consultation paper – In the Public Interest? - that examines competition and regulation in the legal services market.
July 2003: The Department for Constitutional Affairs publishes a report on ‘Competition and regulation in the legal services market’.
July 2003: The Government appoints Sir David Clementi to carry out an independent review of the legal profession in order to identify a framework model that would promote competition within the legal profession as well as represent public and consumer interest.
December 2004: Sir David Clementi's Report - Review of the Regulatory Framework for Legal Services in England and Wales is published.
October 2005: The Government publishes its White Paper - The Future of Legal Services: Putting Consumers First- which sets an agenda for legal services reform.
May 2006: The Draft Legal Service Bill is published.
July 2006: The Joint Committee’s review of the draft Legal Service Bill is published.
September 2006: The Government’s response to the Joint Committee’s report is published.
November 2006 The Legal Services Bill is published.
October 2007: After a longer than expected passage through Parliament, on 30th October 2007 the new Legal Services Act was granted Royal Assent.
Had enough history yet? [Return to the main page] [Top]
Latest Debate? Vince Cable and Bridget Prentice - full debate - hansard
More Law Society fines in 2008 - here
The Clementi Review (now archive only) - here
A much longer and more detailed history - Davies Paper from 2005
The Which? Press Releases 2001 to 2006
Willing Blindness Report - excerpts here
Complaints Against Solicitors (CASIA)
UnustIS - news and more - Rough Justice
The Lay Observer (1974) - Rear Admiral Godfrey Place - Interesting Bloke?
Scotland - Ireland - Europe - Australia - The World in fact ... www.google.com
[Home]
"The fact is that 10 years or so ago, a complaint against the legal profession was almost a waste of time—the profession did not take complaints seriously, and often ignored them and brushed them under the carpet. The profession certainly did not respond sensitively to consumers." Bridget Prentice 22nd July 2008 (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice; Lewisham East, Labour - the Lady who took the Legal Services Act through Parliament)
Have things changed in 10 years? LCS-Test and the LCS-Test Survey intend to FIND OUT!
Keywords Repeating? We'll do almost anything for Yahoo ratings!
Complaints against solicitors, Legal Complaint Service, LCS, LCS-Test, Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA, Office for the Supervision of Solicitors, OSS, Consumer Complaints Service, CCS, OSS/CCS, LCS/SRA, Resolving Complaints, Independent Survey, LCS-Test survey, Bad solicitors, Advice on choosing and using a solicitor here. Solicitors Complaints Bureau, SCB, Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman, OLSO, http://www.olso.org/ Legal Services Ombudsman, LSO, Office of the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner, OLSCC, Institute of Legal Executives, ILEX, Association of Law Costs Draughtsmen, ALCD, Bar Standards Board, Bar Council, Legal Services Board, LSB, Sir David Clementi, Zahida Manzoor CBE, report, how to complain http://www.legalcomplaints.org.uk/about-us/lso.page Quality and Service Standards Team. Your Member of Parliament, MP, Hansard, Debate, Solicitors Act 1974. Any HUMANS working for those search engines? We ALL need YOUR help :-) MANY THANKS! Don't forget our LINKS page.
A full and often updated site-map (mainly intended for the machines) is included on our default page.
Help! http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/online-complaints-plan-hold Help!
Cache Copy (20/10/2008) OLSCC Cache
If The Law Society won't publish... then we NEED your help even more!
