What is a handling complaint?
A handling complaint is a complaint about the way a professional organisation, such as the Law Society of Scotland or the Faculty of Advocates, has dealt with a conduct or regulatory complaint.
If the professional organisation has failed to start or has not yet completed an investigation, we may be able to investigate the handling of the complaint. However, normally we will not intervene if a conduct or regulatory complaint is still being investigated by the professional organisation.
What do we investigate?
Our handling powers limit us to investigating how the professional organisation dealt with your complaint.
We review whether the professional organisation’s investigation and determination processes were handled reasonably and in line with its standard procedures.
We assess whether its decisions are based on a fair and thorough examination of all the evidence.
We review the time taken to deal with a complaint.
What can't we investigate?
- We can’t reconsider your original complaint about the conduct of the practitioner.
- We can’t overturn or alter the decision made by the professional organisation.
- We can’t consider or change any decisions taken by the Scottish Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal.