As well as our work on complaints about lawyers, we oversee how the professional bodies deal with conduct complaints. This includes investigating complaints about how these bodies have handled individual complaints and auditing the complaint records.
The Oversight Team is also responsible for monitoring trends in complaints and - using that data - issuing guidance and best practice notes to the profession on how to deal with complaints and how to prevent common issues from arising in the first place.
Other responsibilities include:
- liasing with SLCC’s external stakeholders
- contributing to external consultation exercises
- undertaking an annual cycle of outreach work which includes external presentations to groups of practitioners and those entering the legal profession
- monitoring non-compliance on the part of practitioners’ observance of SLCC determinations
- reporting instances of non-compliance to the professional bodies to consider as potential unsatisfactory professional conduct or, in serious cases, potential misconduct
- monitoring the arrangements that are in place relating to the Scottish Solicitors Client Protection Fund and the indemnity insurance arrangements for solicitors.