The Law Society's Plan for the period 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008
In February 2007 the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) submitted a draft version of their Improvement Plan to the Commissioner for consideration. Subject to some concerns, the Commissioner considered it as having the potential to move the LCS and SRA closer to becoming effective and efficient complaints handling organisations. Her concerns were that in some of the areas there was insufficient evidence that the targets she had set could be met by the actions proposed by the LCS and SRA. The Commissioner was also disappointed to find that some of the wider business improvement work which the LCS and SRA reported they would undertake (and which they had set out in their improvement agendas) was not in the Plan. The Commissioner had encouraged the LCS and SRA to include this in the Plan because, since her appointment, she had urged them to look beyond the targets she had set and consider wider improvement in complaints handling.
On 4 April 2007 the LCS and SRA submitted a final Improvement Plan for the period 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008 addressing the points the Commissioner had raised, which included adding detail on the improvements they were aiming to deliver from their Improvement Agendas.
Following careful consideration of the final Improvement Plan and additional information, on 16 April 2007 the Commissioner was pleased to declare the LCS and SRA's complaints handling Plan for 2007-08 as adequate in accordance with the Access to Justice Act 1999.
The Commissioner's decision on the Law Society's performance against its Improvement Plan
Under the Commissioner's statutory powers she considers whether the Law Society has handled complaints in accordance with its Improvement Plan.
The Commissioner's decision on 23 June was that the Law Society's complaints handling arms - the LCS and the SRA have not handled complaints in accordance with their Improvement Plan for the period 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008. The Commissioner decided that whilst it would be open to her to do so she would not require the Law Society to pay a penalty for this failure.
Law Society's Plan 2007-2008
Text from decision letters from the Commissioner to the Law Society
Text of the letter from the Commissioner to the Law Society dated 23 June 2007 [PDF, 52kb] 
Text of the letter from the Commissioner to the Law Society dated 16 April 2007 [PDF, 24kb]
Law Society's performance against its Plan 2007-2008
End of Year Position [PDF, 89 kb]
