(183)  Complaints and the Law Society of Scotland

The Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman, Linda Costelloe Baker, criticised the Law Society of Scotland’s handling of complaints against solicitors in her Annual Report published 8 July 2002.  Complainst, which had increased by 57% during the year, had not been adequately dealt with or well-managed in two-thirds of cases.  The Vice President of the Society pointed out that there had been just 1,200 complaints while Scottish solicitors dealt with over a million transactions every year.