Complaints about our Council or committee members

Making a complaint against a Council or committee member

 

1. Making a complaint

Any complaint against a Council or committee member should be referred to the chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland in the first instance by way of a written complaint. Any individual, whether a fellow Council or committee member, staff member, member of the Society or member of the public is entitled to make such a complaint.

Such a complaint must:

1. identify which Council or committee member their complaint relates to,
2. refer to which part or parts of the code of conduct their complaint relates to,
3. provide specific reasons and any supporting evidence to show why they believe the member has broken the code of conduct.
4. Include the name and contact details of the person making the complaint.

On receiving the complaint, the chief executive shall be responsible for acknowledging receipt within three working days. The chief executive shall also be responsible for considering whether the complaint has the necessary information to proceed. If there is insufficient information, the chief executive shall contact the person making the complaint (‘the complainant’) with a request for the additional information. The complainant shall normally be expected to respond to this request within five working days.

If the complaint contains sufficient information, the chief executive shall, at the earliest practicable opportunity, contact the Council or committee member against whom the complaint has been made and provide them with a copy of the complaint, including a clear reference to the part or parts of the code of conduct which they have allegedly broken. It shall be normal practice for the chief executive to also provide the Council or committee member with the name of the complainant unless there is good reason for not doing so, for example, because of an allegation of bullying or harassment.

2. Resolving the complaint by mediation

The chief executive may, if they deem it appropriate, seek to resolve the complaint through mediation. The chief executive may offer both the complainant and the Council or committee member the opportunity to discuss the complaint. Providing both parties agree to this, the chief executive shall arrange a meeting to try and resolve the complaint through mediation at the earliest practicable opportunity. The chief executive may appoint another senior member of staff to carry out this mediation. There is no obligation on either party to agree to mediation.

If the attempt to resolve the complaint by way of mediation is successful then no further action will be taken. If either party refuses the offer of mediation, or if this process does not resolve the complaint, then the process shall continue as detailed below.

3. First consideration of the complaint

The chief executive shall review the complaint and decide whether the complaint is of a sufficiently seriousness nature as to merit investigation. The chief executive shall give due consideration to whether a complaint has been made to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission or a similar complaints body and which relates to the same issue.

If such a complaint has been made then the chief executive shall have the right to await the outcome of that process before deciding whether to initiate any internal investigation.

If the complaint is not considered sufficiently serious then the chief executive shall have the right to simply inform the Council or committee member of this without a further investigation and, if relevant, provide a recommendation on how the issue can be resolved and ensure any minor breaches are not repeated.

The complainant and Council or committee member will be informed as to whether their complaint will or will not be investigated, with clear reasoning if the complaint has been dismissed.

The complainant shall have the right to appeal against a decision not to admit the complaint for investigation. An appeal must be made in writing to the chief executive within ten working days of the complainant being informed of the decision not to investigate. The Council or committee member against whom the complaint has been made shall be informed at the earliest opportunity if an appeal has been submitted.

An appeal will be referred to the president for consideration and a decision made as to whether to uphold the appeal within five working days. In such circumstances, the decision of the president as to whether the complaint is admitted for investigation will be final. Should the appeal be successful, the process shall continue as normal with the complainant and Council or committee member informed of the decision with reasons why the appeal was successful.

If the complaint is against the president or if the nature of the complaint makes it inappropriate for the president to consider an appeal then the role of the president shall be undertaken by the immediate past president.

4. Investigation of the complaint

If the complaint is admitted for investigation, the chief executive will initiate a detailed investigation of the complaint by either:

• referring the matter to a senior member of staff; or
• referring the matter to a three member panel made up of members of the Nominations Committee with members agreed by the convener of that committee. In the event that the complaint relates to the Convener of the Nominations Committee then this role will be undertaken by the President

A specific timescale will be agreed by the chief executive so that a conclusion to the investigation can ideally be reached within 20 working days of the receipt of the original complaint. Both the complainant and the Council or committee member will be contacted and informed of the process and timescales involved.

In exceptional circumstances where it will not be possible to conclude the investigation within this 20 day period, both the complainant and the member shall be provided with details of why the investigation is to take longer along with any revised timescale.

The individual or panel investigating the complaint shall be expected to conduct the investigation fairly and must ensure that both the complainant and the member have been given sufficient opportunity to input into the process.

If either the complainant or the member have reason to believe that the investigation process is not following due process then this should be raised in writing, with reasons given, to the chief executive. The matter will be considered by the chief executive with a response provided within five working days.

5. Report of investigation, conclusion and recommendation

Once the investigation is complete, a report shall be prepared by the individual or panel carrying out the investigation. The report must adequately reflect the views of both sides in addition to any conclusions reached. The report should contain a clear conclusion as to whether there has been a breach of the code of conduct and detail what, if any, parts of the code have been breached.

A draft copy of the report will be made available to the complainant and the Council or committee member at the earliest possible opportunity with a request for suggested corrections to any factual inaccuracies within five working days. The individual or panel carrying out the investigation must give due consideration to any suggested factual corrections but is not obliged to make such corrections.

A final report shall be provided to the chief executive. If the report concludes that there has been no breach of the code of conduct then the complainant and the member shall be provided with a full copy of the report at the earliest available opportunity and informed that no further action will be taken.

If the report concludes there has been a breach of the code of conduct then the report shall be provided to the complainant and the member. The report shall also be circulated to the appropriate decision body (see below) in good time for consideration at the next scheduled meeting.

The appropriate decision body shall have the right to agree to make the report and any decision public.

6. Dealing with a breach of the code

In circumstances where a complaint and possible breach of the code relates to a member of Council, a non-regulatory committee or sub-committee, or non-regulatory working group then the appropriate decision body shall be Council.

In circumstances where a complaint and possible breach of the code relates to a member of the Regulatory Committee, a regulatory sub-committee or regulatory working group then the appropriate decision body shall be Regulatory Committee.

If a member has been found to be in breach of the code of conduct, the individual or panel investigating the breach will make a recommendation as to what action, if any, should be taken against the member concerned. It is however entirely a matter for appropriate decision body to take a final decision. In such circumstances, the appropriate decision body should consider the matter at its next scheduled meeting and shall have the power to either:

• decide that no action be taken;
• censure the member or;
• suspend the member in line with the Society’s constitution and standing orders.

The appropriate decision body’s decision shall be final in all circumstances.

7. Process for the automatic consideration of the suspension of a member

The code of conduct provides circumstances in which the suspension of a Council or committee member should be considered automatically. The chief executive should be notified at the earliest possible stage as to whether any of the criteria in the code has been met to require the automatic consideration of suspension.

The chief executive shall inform the member concerned that there is reason to believe their suspension should be considered automatically in line with the code of conduct. That member should be given an opportunity to respond to the issues raised within a reasonable period.

The chief executive shall prepare a report which details the reasons why a member should be considered for suspension. They may include background papers, for example the findings from the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal or other similar disciplinary body. This report, along with the member’s response, shall be presented to the Nominations Committee.

If the suspension relates to a member of the Nominations Committee, then they must not participate in the discussion around the suspension. If the suspension relates to the Convener of the Nominations Committee then the role of the Convener shall be undertaken by the President.

The Nominations Committee shall consider the report and make a recommendation to the appropriate decision body (see above) on whether the member should be suspended or not.

The appropriate decision body shall consider this recommendation at its next meeting. Its decision shall be final and be communicated to the member concerned.