Understanding between Police and Law Society June 2004
Here is the full text of the Memorandum, taken from the ACPO site
This is the text of a letter from the Department for Constitutional Affairs to a group of individuals concerned about the lack of accountability to the public of solicitors and the legal system in England. How right they are to be concerned. UJ.
Dated 07 June 2004
Dear
Thank you for your letter of 4 April addressed to Mr Grant Morris at the Department for Constitutional Affairs. I have been asked to reply. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in replying.
Firstly, I would like to thank you for your letter, the contents of which have been noted. I understand you remain concerned about the ability of the Law Society and its complaints handling wing, the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) to deal with complaints about its member's adequately.
Firstly, it may interest you to note that the OSS has changed it name. The Law Society has created a new Consumer Complaint Service (CCS) which was launched on the 19 April, to focus exclusively on the rapid resolution of complaints about poor service and replaces the OSS in that role.
I hope you will also find it helpful to note that, Lord Falconer has made clear his view that the solicitor's role as the link between the public and the legal system is vital, but it will only continue to work effectively if the services and subsequent complaints handling processes provided by solicitors are carried out to a high standard. To ensure that the public get the complaints handling service from solicitors that they are entitled to expect, Lord Falconer has taken a significant step and formally appointed the current Legal Services Ombudsman Zahida Manzoor, as Legal Services Complaints Commissioner (LSCC) to oversee the Law Society's Complaints handling processes. Ms Manzoor will carry out both the roles of Commissioner and of Ombudsman, which will remain separate. The Ombudsman is concerned with individual complaints while the LSCC will scrutinise the Law Society's complaints handling processes.
The LSCC has powers to:
• Set targets for the handling of complaints; • Make recommendations about the complaints systems; • Require the Law Society to submit a plan for complaints handling; and • Impose a fine if the Law Society fails to meet the agreed plans for improvements in complaints handling.
The appointment of the LSCC is an interim measure put in place until the review of the regulation of the legal services market led by Sir David Clementi, Prudential plc chairman and former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, is completed. The aim of the review is to open up the legal services market, promote competition and to improve the services for the customer. Sir David's report is expected in December 2004.
Finally, you raise concerns regarding the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the police and the Law Society which you suggest provides that all complaints made by a member of the public to the police relating to the conduct of a solicitor will be passed to the CCS to investigate. The Department understands that there are several MOU's between the Law Society and other organisations, which clarifies their roles and responsibilities. The content of the MOU is agreed by the Law Society and that respective body, and neither the Secretary of State and his officials are able to intervene in or comment on the contents of an MOU between the Law Society and other organisations. This is entirely for the Law Society and that body to agree on.
However, to be helpful, officials have contacted the Law Society who advise that, there is an MOU between the Law Society and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). The MOU encourages the sharing of relevant information between ACPO and the Law Society, however once information is passed on the Law Society would have no influence on what action the Police would take or vice versa. If the police consider, after investigation, that there is a case to answer they will place the matter before the Crown Prosecution Service for action. I am unable to comment as to the level of evidence the police will require before they take action.
If the police refer concerns about solicitors to the Crown Prosecution Service, they can also refer the matter to the CCS. The CCS will treat the matter as one of misconduct. If the CCS make a finding of misconduct based on all the evidence before them, the Office is able to discipline the solicitor.
I hope you find this information of some use.
Yours sincerely
Legal Services Development Division
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