Neat move by Law Society

The Law Society has avoided paying a fine of £275,000 to the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner by promising instead to spend the money on good works.

Zahida Manzoor, the commissioner, announced last June that she would be imposing the penalty because she regarded a plan submitted by the Legal Complaints Service as “inadequate to secure the effective and efficient handling of complaints”. The Legal Complaints Service is run by the solicitors’ professional body.

Today, the Law Society and the complaints commissioner announced what they called a “regulatory settlement”. Instead of paying the money into public funds, the Law Society would spend it on measures designed to improve client care:

• £100,000 will be spent on recruiting 20 consultants to work with firms that need help with complaint handling.

• £30,000 will go towards a new helpline for solicitors.

• £40,000 will be spent on a newly-recruited project manager.

• £105,000 will fund two additional places a year for five years on the diversity access scheme, enabling 10 people to become solicitors who might not otherwise have been able to join the profession.

Neat move.

Posted at March 4, 2009 10:55 AM