Options ahead on standards

The Society’s Standards Working Group, with feedback from a reference group of non-lawyer stakeholders, is preparing an “options paper”, which will outline a range of ways the system of standards could work. A wide-ranging consultation exercise with the profession and public will take place after Council has considered the paper at the end of November.

Society President Richard Henderson said it was crucial to achieve as high a response rate to the consultation as possible: “This options paper will provide us with the opportunity to debate seriously the core values and aspirations of solicitors.

I urge as many as possible in the profession to take part in this important exercise.

“It is also of course critical that any system of standards has the confidence of the public as well as the profession, and that is why we set up the reference group.

We want as wide a response as possible to the consultation and want to encourage as positive an engagement as possible from the public to involve them also in the process.”

The working group, which represents a number of different sectors of the profession, was set up in June after discussions about how to define clear and enforceable standards that would benefit both solicitors and clients. It resolved to clarify the current regulatory system, which involves a complex combination of practice rules, practice guidelines and the Code of Conduct. That objective was given greater urgency by the establishing of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, expected to be up and running by next autumn.

The President acknowledges that the Commission poses a challenge to the profession to raise its game, but is confident that the ongoing reform process presents solicitors with a valuable opportunity.

“I am in no doubt that standards among solicitors are already extremely high. However, none of us would want to rest on our laurels. It is key to the future that we make the whole issue of standards more accessible to the public. We have to make sure that those whose business brings them into contact with solicitors know what they can reasonably expect. We are determined to ensure that the proposals we are developing will provide an effective response to the service and conduct issues facing the profession.”

The options outlined in the paper will include retaining the status quo. However current rules can be inaccessible for consumers and clients. Alternatively, a simple checklist, or tick box, system could be introduced, as might be preferred by some consumer interests. A third option would be to implement standards that differentiate between what is expected of law firms and individual practitioners. Individual solicitors would be subject to a revised and simplified code of conduct in relation to matters such as independence, integrity, confidentiality, discrimination and conflict of interest. Practices would be expected to adhere to a principle-based set of service standards covering matters such as levels of courtesy, respect and communication given to clients. Other regulators including the RICS and the General Optical Council already distinguish between individual conduct and practice standards.

The consultation is expected to run until February 2008. The Society will analyse the responses and produce a paper with detailed proposals first for Council and then the AGM in May. If approval is given at the AGM, more detailed work will begin.

With a good response, the President added, the Society can develop “standards that will allow solicitors to measure and advance levels of customer satisfaction, while clients will know what level of service they can expect to receive from a modern, committed and accountable legal profession”.

If you have any queries regarding standards, please email; standards@lawscot.org.uk .