Focus groups back complaints league table
(Source: Solicitor's Journal - http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/story.asp?sectioncode=2&storycode=17865&c=1)
Focus groups commissioned by the Legal Ombudsman and the Legal Services Consumer Panel have backed the idea of introducing league tables of complaints against law firms.
There was also support from the 58 consumers involved in the research, carried out at the end of last year by Acute Insight Market Research, for identifying only those firms found to have been at fault three times in a year.
Dianne Hayter, chair of the consumer panel, said the research gave the Legal Ombudsman “the final piece of evidence” he needed to name law firms which regularly provided poor service.
“Naming law firms would show consumers that an impartial body is there to act on their problem, giving them the added confidence boost they need to speak out,” she said.
“Consumers’ insistence on a fair publication scheme should give everyone confidence that complaints data would be used sensibly and lawyers would not be unfairly penalised as some in the profession claim.”
Members of the focus groups were concerned that publishing the names of firms and solicitors where complaints were not upheld could be unfair, while publishing names only where complaints had been upheld could create an impression of ‘naming and shaming’.
Focus groups of high street solicitors expressed their opposition to the idea of publishing names.
A spokeswoman for LeO said statistics and anonymised case summaries would be available on the website “with immediate effect” and from June 2011 details would be given on the area of law, the type of lawyer and the outcome of the case.
She said a decision would be made by the end of the year on how to use names.
Adam Sampson, the chief ombudsman, said it was important to give a “comprehensive and fair” picture of all the cases resolved formally and informally, including those where lawyers provided a good service.
