Law Society of Scotland comments on Scottish Legal Complaints Commission’s first Annual Report
Lorna Jack, Chief Executive of the Law Society of Scotland, said: “The surplus at the end of the SLCC’s first nine months of operation was unacceptably high.
In its first nine months of operation, the SLCC passed on 1, 014 complaints to the Society to handle, out of 1,063, after it took the decision that the professional bodies should continue to handle complaints about any business instructed before October 1, 2008, the date the SLCC opened.
Ms Jack added: “Considering the small number of complaints which the SLCC handled in its first 9 months, solicitors are right to question how the levy is being used and how efficiently the SLCC is managing its budget, funded mainly by solicitors. We need to ensure that the SLCC offers value for money for everyone involved in complaints.
“We will continue to work on behalf of solicitors to press for the levy to be reduced for 2010-2011. We believe that the reserves are still too high and should be used to keep the cost of the levy down.”
Philip Yelland, Director of Regulation, said: “We are encouraging solicitors to let us know what they think of the proposed levy by February 17 so we can include their opinions in our response to the Commission’s budget consultation.”
Comments on the levy can be emailed to
regulationqueries@lawscot.org.uk
8 February 2010
