The secret diary of a legal aid solicitor: the day-to-day story of a high street practitioner
An anonymous legal aid solicitor discusses complaints:
I am the firm’s complaints partner. It’s a rotten job but someone has to do it. We have very few complaints, probably because this is something we try to avoid by training staff in the importance of doing things right first time. But a new cohort of complainant has recently started coming through the door: legal aid applicants who have come to see a fee-earner but been told that their matter is not within scope; perhaps a contact matter where there has been no domestic violence or just a straightforward divorce.
We also have complaints from legal aid clients who have had a negative Counsel Opinion and refuse to accept that the firm can no longer pursue their matter. For example, we had a certificate in a housing disrepair matter where the costs of pursuing the case were going to significantly outweigh the likely award of damages and counsel had, quite rightly, advised that the certificate be discharged.
In the latter case, the client rang to speak with me as she was sure we were not doing the best for her. She was angry and threatening. I calmed her down as best I could. I suggested we could ask for permission to get a second Counsel Opinion in the hope that this might be more positive, but she remained pretty hostile and thought that the problems had been caused by us not handling her matter correctly.
Dealing with complaints is a learning curve. It is not just unpaid work (although no one does pay you to deal with complaints) but a moment to sit back and see how the work might have been done. But the complaints we are now receiving from clients, unhappy that their work is not within scope, are not going to teach us much. We all know what work cannot be claimed for and that the vast majority of private law family work, in the absence of domestic violence, is out of scope.
This has not filtered through to the broad mass of the population. Old clients who we have seen several times over the course of the last 30 years are just waking up to discover that their last line of defence – their lawyer – is now denied to them. Speaking with clients on the phone I often advise them to contact their MP or councillor. Surprisingly, they have often already done that and been told to speak to us! There is still a degree of ignorance in parliament about the extent of the cuts and the sheer swathes of work that are no longer in scope.
What is clear, however, is that we are now dealing with a group of much angrier, disempowered clients; clients who used to deal with matters using lawyers but who are now having to slug it out face to face without those calming intermediaries. Hence what can be very time-consuming complaints.
Nobody likes getting a complaint, but there is a dull irony in getting a complaint from a client who has been in to see a solicitor, who has spent time with her and explained that she cannot be represented because her matter is no longer in scope since the LASPO Act came into force. Yes, I deal with it. But it leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth.