UK Law Articles
These articles are reproduced from old newspapers. Whether you are looking for old articles about the Lord Chancellor's Department, or trying to find stories on solicitors, judges or courts, the law teacher article database is here to help you. You will find these articles useful for writing your law essays, law dissertations and law coursework.
The Times
June 19 1999
Legal complaints reform 'urgent'
BY FRANCES GIBB, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
A MULTI-MILLION pound injection of funds is urgently needed to tackle the crisis facing the solicitors' complaints system, according to a report yesterday.
The independent report, into the ailing Office for the Supervision of Solicitors, said that complaints about solicitors were expected to rise so that by next year they will top 25,000 a year - 28 per cent up on last year.
If the Law Society cannot improve its handling of complaints, ministers have hinted that they may remove the handling of complaints from the profession and set up an independent, statutory body. The office is struggling with a backlog of 17,000 unresolved complaints which is rising by 350 cases a month, it says.
Delays in the tackling of cases run to months. The report issues a warning that on present performance, there will be a further 9,000 unresolved complaints by the end of next year, unless rapid changes are made.
The report says: "It is our understanding that the Law Society and the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors have a further but final opportunity to demonstrate that they can be responsible for complaints handling if they are to avoid government intervention."
