SLCC to publish determination decisions
Case studies on the handling of individual client complaints will be published from this month by the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.
Earlier this year, the SLCC took the decision to publish determination decisions and, towards the end of December, it will issue decisions made in the quarter July to September 2015. These will be anonymised; the step is being taken to provide general guidance to the profession and to help promote best practice in the provision of legal services
The SLCC also expects that the decisions, which will be published quarterly, will be useful information for potential complainers, in terms of expectation management.
David Buchanan-Cook, head of oversight at the SLCC, explained: "While we hope that this will also demonstrate better accountability and the transparency of our complaint handling process, we also needed to balance that transparency with our duty to protect the confidentiality of complainers and practitioners. Unlike our counterparts south of the border, our legislation prevents us from 'naming and shaming' individual solicitors or firms without their express permission unless the complaint is unusual and it is in the public interest to publish. Very few, if any, inadequate service complaints meet those criteria.
"For these reasons, we have chosen to publish anonymous complaint information in the form of very short case studies and have, as far as possible, removed any identifying features. As such, the complaint information is only a brief summary of the information made available to the Determination Committee. In making decisions, consideration will have been given to specific facts and circumstances which, again for reasons of confidentiality, cannot be provided publicly.
"We hope, however, that the published information is sufficient to provide general guidance to the profession and that it will help promote best practice in the provision of legal services."
Coinciding with the new service, the SLCC is launching a quarterly newsletter specifically aimed at providing practical and topical support for client relations managers. It will contain regular best practice features, guest articles, prior notice of future CPD events and will provide comment on some of the trends and features emerging from the previous quarter’s published decisions.
The SLCC hopes it will be of value to anyone who is involved in promoting better client relations.
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