Mr
Peter Williamson
President of the Law Society
2 New Square
Lincoln's Inn
London
WC2A 3RZ
5
October 2003
Dear
Sir
Re.
Client Care Agreements
As
we all know the Law Society make their own rules, govern their own complaints
procedure and carry out their own disciplinary measures. This all works
fine for the Law Society's members, brother watching out for brother so
to speak, but for the client's side it appears the 'client' is on his
own, for instance, in my case, the rules that benefited the solicitors
were strictly applied to me, but vice-versa the rules were ignored.
Below
is an extract taken, as you can see, from 'The
Times' in May 1998 and the highlights show that solicitors
"should have their own complaints procedures"
and the OSS will not look at complaints until "in-house
procedures" were carried out first: -
'THE TIMES' - Wednesday May 6, 1998
'Solicitors Watchdog Awash `With Complaints'
By FRANCES GIBB - LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
A WATCHDOG yesterday announced measures to curb a 30 per cent rise in
complaints about solicitors and to increase its efficiency.
The Office for the Supervision
of Solicitors (OSS) will no longer look at a complaint until it has gone
through a firm's in-house procedures. Almost half the complaints
it gets about 19,000 a year go direct to the Office, despite
a rule that all solicitors in England and Wales should have their own
complaints procedures.
The Office is also to set a time limit; those dissatisfied with the in-house
procedure must, in most cases, approach the Office within six months
-------------------------------------------.
After 'complaining' for two years the Senior Partner would refuse to see
me (April '99) or carry out an internal investigation, and the OSS, who
I contacted for help at the time, and despite letters and 'phone calls
it would be 18 months (Dec '00) before they wrote to me. Not only that
but 6 months previous (6 June '00) the OSS colluded with my solicitors
in using the content of my 'unopened file' to assist my solicitors in
sacking me on 7 June '00.
First
of all my solicitors failed to comply with the 'Client
Care Agreement' in that the Senior Partner, Gordon Luckhurst,
refused to see me or to carry out any "in-house
procedures" to deal with my dissatisfaction, except to
allow an ex-employee (according to a court document had left the firm
2 years previously) who some of my complaints were about, take a pre-arranged
meeting on her own that Gordon Luckhurst failed to turn up for then twice
more refused my requests to see him then eventually seeking the OSS's
help and assistance to sack me as a paying client. Conspiracy or what???
Second
the OSS failed to 'enforce' the 'rules' in April '99 when I asked them
to or 'investigate' why they did not enforce the 'rules' when they carried
out their investigation into my complaint over two years later (June '02).
Third
the OSS failed to investigate why there was no 'in-house complaints procedure'
in operation.
Fourth
the 'collusion' between the OSS and my solicitors on 6 June '00 in using
my 'unopened file' to bring about my sacking amounts to 'misconduct' which
the OSS refused to investigate and the Legal Ombudsman also ignored this
part of my complaint.
Fifth
the OSS failed to inform me of an 'advice service' they provide if the
client had made an allegation of 'negligence' against their solicitors.
(This 'negligence information' was passed by the OSS, from my 'unopened
file', to my solicitors on 6 June '00 to assist them in sacking me on
the 7 June).
Sixth. In your Client's
Charter there is a line that states, "be
polite and considerate in their dealings with you". Well
because I am complaining that the Law Society have failed to 'comply'
with their own rules, your 'Chair of the Compliance Board' first of all
ignored me then referred to me as a "disgruntled
complainant" I don't call that "polite"
or "considerate" and I believe
he should say why he his ignoring 'non-compliance of the rules'.
Seventh,
where do we go from here? The point is simple, if the OSS refuse on the
client's behalf to make the solicitors comply with the Law Society's own
rules, the Legal Ombudsman will not address the issue and the 'Chair of
the Compliance Board' after being contacted ignores the client and then
at the second attempt he replies and shows total disregard for the client,
client care and the Clint Care Agreement by just referring to the client
as a 'disgruntled complainant'. Tell me, does the solicitors' client ignore
all your complaints channels, as they don't work, and write direct to
you to get their solicitors to comply with your own rules or do you ignore
the rule book as well? If so, does the client write to the 'Master of
the Rolls' for clarification of the rules?
I
have enclosed part copies of "Chapter 13.02
Practice rule 15" and "Chapter
13.02 Solicitors' Costs Information and Client Care Code".
As you know these rules are made "in accordance
with a Solicitors' Costs Information and Client Care Code made from time
to time by the Council of the Law Society with the concurrence of the
Master of the Rolls
". As I have previously said
my solicitors refused to comply with these rules, the OSS would not enforce
them and later refused to address this part of my complaint, the Legal
Ombudsman who stated "it has been dealt
with" failed to show me 'where and how' and the Chair
of the Compliance Board could not care less.
In
the last letter I wrote to the Chair of the Compliance Board a quote I
made to him I will repeat to you: -
"When
I go to a country, I do not look to see whether there are good laws, but
whether those there are enforced, for good laws are everywhere".
Charles Louis Montesquieu: French Jurist (1689-1755)
You
must agree it is 'Members of The Law Society' who are not 'complying'
with your own rules and it is also 'Members of The Law Society' who are
not 'enforcing' these rules for the benefit of 'Members of The Law Society'.
If you do not apply the rules to your own members as strictly as you apply
them to solicitors' 'Clients' then it shows your 'Complaints' handling
'Procedures' are so corrupt it is time for you to hand over to an independent
body or call it what it is, a 'Lawyers Protection
Racket'.
Let
me expand a little on this 'Protection Racket'
allegation. The consensus of opinions of three legal experts, a District
Judge, a Barrister and a Solicitor was that there were six years of delays
(it took three years to apply for a summons) in bringing my case to a
conclusion. When my complaint was evaluated by the 'Non-legal
experts' (OSS) their verdict on delays stated, "
has
concluded that there is no sufficient evidence to show a delay",
albeit John Lymbury the Adjudicator actually invented evidence to cover
for the 'delays' that they say didn't occur, and the Legal Ombudsman who
was aware of these facts refused to address them. For the OSS and the
Ombudsman to 'cover-up' six years of delays plus inventing evidence, amongst
other things, is nothing short of operating a 'Protection
Racket'.
In
the Ombudsman's 'Little Blue Book' (rule book??) it states "she
will always look at what you have to say" and "What
the Ombudsman will do is check that all your complaints were addressed
"
all I can say is Zahida Manzoor must be the joke of the century.
Before
you throw this letter in the bin believing, as Richard Hegarty does, that
I am just some raving 'disgruntled complainant' you should pay attention
to what a District Judge, a Barrister and Ann Abraham, the Ombudsman's
predecessor, amongst others said about my ex-solicitors and then read
the various impressive comments made by yourself and other senior members
of the Law Society that I have enclosed. May be these comments are all
made with 'tongue-in-cheek'?
Yours sincerely
X
X Xxxx
PS I
will publish this letter on my website, which I am sure by now you are aware
of, as I have done with
various other correspondence. |