Report to the People
18th December 2006
The
Legal Standard
You won’t thank me for
reminding you, but it’s only a week until Christmas.
Despite the now traditional
complaints about the festive season starting far too early (and they have a
point - there’s been tinsel in shop windows and snow-covered adverts on
television since about Halloween), it has rather snuck up on me this year.
My excuse for being
unprepared is that in recent weeks the Scottish Parliament has been working
overtime to complete several important pieces of legislation before next
year’s election brings the parliamentary session to a close.
This continued last week,
with MSPs voting on a Bill to reform the system for handling complaints against
lawyers.
There are, of course, many
good, conscientious lawyers who provide important services in our community at
key times in our lives. But there
is a minority whose laxity means they don’t deliver the quality of service
their fees demand. And, as I know
from the constituents’ cases I take up, the system for complaining against the
bad apples often leaves the paying customer far from satisfied.
This Bill, therefore, will
end the current set-up whereby lawyers’ own professional bodies consider
allegations that a colleague has provided “inadequate professional
services”. Instead, such disputes
which can’t be resolved at source will be referred to a new, independent
Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, with a non-lawyer majority and a
non-lawyer chair.
So, while we can’t always
be sure a lawyer will get us the result we want, we should have confidence that
they will always act professionally.
Back to Current Reports to the People
[ HOME ] [ News ] [ Report to the People ] [ Interact ] [ Links ] [ E-Mail ]
[ Copyright ] [ Directgov ] [ Scottish Parliament ]