Our Practice Advice Service answers a commonly asked question put to compliance officers for legal practice

Though it isn’t mandatory, it’s good practice to keep records of complaints you receive, as this provides your firm with useful data that can allow it to identify any trends or potential problem areas in your business.

One of the key findings of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) 2019 report, Maintaining standards of service and reducing complaints, was that the most common complaints are about delay, a failure to advise and excessive costs.

The SRA collects data on complaints from practices as part of its practising certificate renewal process. It has categorised complaints into the following areas:

  • conduct
  • costs information deficient
  • costs excessive
  • criminal activity
  • data protection
  • delay
  • discrimination
  • failure to advise
  • failure to comply with agreed remedy
  • failure to follow instructions
  • failure to investigate complaint internally
  • failure to keep informed
  • failure to keep papers safe
  • failure to progress
  • other

You may wish to collect data in the same format so that it’s easy to submit this information if required by the SRA. However, the categories the SRA uses may change.

You should regularly review the information you collect on complaints received by your practice, as this will help your firm to:

  • identify trends in complaints and areas of service needing improvement
  • discern whether policy or procedure changes are reducing the level of complaints
  • understand the effectiveness of your complaints management process in resolving complaints internally, and
  • build up an understanding of appropriate remedies to common complaints.

For further information, please see our practice note on handling complaints.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this article, it does not constitute legal advice and cannot be relied upon as such. The Law Society does not accept any responsibility for liabilities arising as a result of reliance upon the information given.

This FAQ is compiled by the Law Society’s Practice Advice Service. Comments relating to the question should be sent to practiceadvice@lawsociety.org