The Law Society of Scotland has launched a fresh attack on the body that oversees how consumer complaints against lawyers are handled, just a month after bringing 18 court cases against it.
Law Society president Eilidh Wiseman has branded plans by the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) to hike the fees it charges lawyers and advocates by 12.5 per cent “unacceptable” and warned that the body faces “deep anger” from the profession.
“If a council proposed a 12 per cent rise in council tax, there would be fury. If a train operator proposed a 12 per cent rise in its fares, there would be an outcry,” she said.
“In bringing forward a 12.5 per cent rise, almost eight times the rate of inflation, the SLCC will face deep anger from a solicitor profession which is becoming increasingly concerned at the way the SLCC is operating.
“Consumers should also be concerned as it is clients who ultimately pay for the SLCC through solicitors’ fees.”
The Law Society is now consulting with its members about how it should respond to the proposed hikes, which are currently out for consultation before a final budget is laid before Parliament in April.
SLCC chief executive Neil Stevenson said the body, which is funded entirely through individual levies on solicitors and advocates, needs to raise additional cash this year so it can recruit extra case workers. This is because in the last financial year the number of complaints it received increased by 12 per cent while in the 2016 calendar year they rose by 33 per cent.
“One of the issues we see as key is that our levy fluctuates every year because we are asked [by Parliament] to raise the exact amount of money we need,” he said.
However, Ms Wiseman said that the increase in complaints “cannot be justification for such a significant rise in the SLCC’s charging”.
“We find it difficult to understand how this cannot be absorbed in existing budgets,” she added.
This comes after the Law Society last year launched legal action against the SLCC over the way it has handled so-called hybrid complaints. Under rules laid down by the Government the SLCC, which is the gateway for all complaints, should only deal with issues relating to the service provided by a lawyer and should pass anything to do with a lawyer’s conduct to either the Law Society or the Faculty of Advocates.
In 200 cases, however, the SLCC found elements of both and classified them as hybrid complaints, something that was deemed unlawful by the Court of Session last August. In the wake of the court’s decision the SLCC recategorised a number of those cases as service only, a move the Law Society was opposed to.
In December it launched 18 court cases against the SLCC, one into the process of recategorisation itself and a further 17 relating to individual SLCC decisions. As a result, all 200 hybrid cases have been placed on hold.
Mr Stevenson said he is hopeful that the Law Society and SLCC will be able to make a joint application for an early hearing on the reclassification case, which could see the matter go before the court in February.
Meanwhile, as part of its annual consultation, which is open until March 13, the SLCC is asking both consumers and legal professionals to come forward with ideas on how the complaints process could be improved.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here