Complaints failure

The Law Society has been fined £275,000 by the Legal Ser vices Complaints Commissioner, Zahida Manzoor, who has dismissed its complaints handling plan for 2008– 09 as “inadequate”. The commissioner says she had little option but to impose the fine after the Law Society failed to properly outline its complaints handling commitments. In response, the chief executive of the Law Society, Des Hudson, says the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) has delivered a yearon- year improvement in terms of the quality and speed with which it handles complaints. “The performance of the LCS compares favourably to other similar organisations. On any reasonable measure the LCS must now be regarded as an effective complaints handling body,” he says.