Society refuses Ombudsman's recommendations for payouts

Published on Sunday 7 September 2008 20:12

THE Law Society has been criticised by the complaints watchdog for failing to compensate a grieving widow after throwing out her case too quickly.

The widow's complaint is one of two highlighted in official notices published today by Jane Irvine, the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman. A notice is the strongest sanction available to the Ombudsman, whose role is to investigate whether the Society has properly handled complaints about solicitors.

In one notice, Irvine criticised the speed at which the Society closed its investigation into concerns from a woman unhappy with the way a firm had handled the administration of her late husband's estate. The Society closed its complaint file when it appeared the woman had abandoned the issue.

But Irvine pointed out that it had only given her 14 days to respond – a week less than the 21 days given to solicitors – and that the woman had complained under "distressing circumstances". It later rejected Irvine's recommendation that it should offer the woman compensation.

"Complaints have to be managed and setting time limits is an important part of that process," Irvine said. "However it is a very serious step to throw a complaint out of a complaint system, leaving a lay complainer nowhere else to go."

In another case, the Society refused to reconsider its response to a complaint that a solicitor had failed to carry out an instruction in a guardianship application. Irvine had also recommended the Society pay compensation and costs, but this too was rejected.

Mary McGowan, deputy director of the Society's Client Relations Office, said in the guardianship case the Society agreed with its committee that it had reached a reasonable decision.

She added: "In the second case, the Society followed its normal processes and policies. One of these is to set reasonable deadlines so that investigations move at a reasonable pace.

"If the complainer had asked for more time to respond then the Society would have been happy to extend the deadline."