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Lord Chancellor's Department
Press Notice
2 December 1999

 

CUSTOMER CARE MUST BE A TOP PRIORITY FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION - GOVERNMENT TELLS LAWYERS

Customer care needs to be one of the legal profession's top priorities for the future, lawyers were told by a Government representative at a conference today.

The conference, "Inspiring public confidence and client satisfaction in the legal profession" was organised on behalf of the Legal Services Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, by the Customer Management Consultancy Ltd, a research and management consultancy specialising in customer care and complaint handling. The Legal Services Ombudsman is responsible for overseeing the handling of complaints about lawyers by their respective professional bodies.

The conference was sponsored by the Law Society, the Bar Council and the Consumers' Association and delegates included practising solicitors and barristers, academics, representatives from consumer organisations and senior civil servants, as well as office holders
and senior managers from the Law Society, the Bar Council, the Institute of Legal Executives and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

Lord Bach, speaking on behalf of the Government, said "Many in the profession understand the need for good customer care and internal complaints-handling procedures, but there are still those who see the complaining client as "The Opposition", to be defeated at all costs, irrespective of whether they may have a point!"

Ann Abraham urged the profession to:

Establish clear standards of service and conduct so that clients know what to expect; Promote effective client care and complaints handling as "the mark of a good lawyer"; Deal with complaints speedily and thoroughly and provide effective redress when lawyers are found to be at fault;

Involve more lay people at all levels in the regulatory regime.

Following Lord Bach's introduction, distinguished speakers from the medical profession and the financial services sector described what other professions and sectors have done, and suggested what the legal profession needs to do, to reconcile public expectations and professional values and halt the erosion of public confidence.

In the afternoon a range of workshop sessions on clients, their problems and innovative ways of tackling them gave delegates the opportunity to talk about their experiences and learn from leading practitioners and their teams, as well as from distinguished consumer leaders and academics.

At the end of the afternoon the Chairman of the Bar Council, Dan Brennan QC, and the President of the Law Society, Robert Sayer, outlined their vision of the way forward.

The focus of the conference was on giving practical help to lawyers who are interested in giving a better service to their clients and earning a better reputation for the profession at large. Nonetheless, whilst acknowledging the positive steps taken in recent months, Lord Bach spelled out the bottom line of the Government's position on this issue: "Governments must act to protect consumers if the professional bodies are failing to do so."

Notes for Editors

1. The Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales is appointed in accordance with the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. The Ombudsman is independent of both the Government and the legal profession. The Ombudsman oversees the handling of complaints about solicitors, barristers, licensed conveyancers and legal executives by the four professional bodies responsible for setting and maintaining standards of conduct and service in the legal profession.

2. The Customer Management Consultancy Ltd (CMC) is a research and management consultancy which specialises in complaint handling and customer service in government, industry and the professions. CMC undertook research in 1998 for the Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales into the views of enquirers, complainants and practitioners who had been in contact with her Office.

3. Lord Bach is a Government Whip in the House of Lords, with special responsibility for the House of Lords.

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