The Bar Complaints system is undergoing major change. The portal for all complaints is now the Legal Ombudsman Service (LeO). It is too early to pass comment on the efficacy and fairness of that new regime. However, in anticipation of a handover, the BSB has created a 12 month time limit in place of the 6 month limit and, moreover, has totally abolished the office of the Lay Complaints Commissioner.
One can well understand the perfect logic behind this. Why have a lay Commissioner when the new LeO system is itself a lay portal ? Why have a 6 month time limit for conduct complaints to the BSB, when LeO may itself take 6 months to deal with the non-conduct/service limb of the complaint.
However, would the Bar not have wished to comment on these changes and to suggest ways of ensuring that there is full and effective screening of complaints within the BSB, that there is a system for killing off vexatious complaints at source, that no one person in the BSB becomes all-powerful, that no Barrister is oppressed by a complaint, when he can barely recall the case ?
These are vital issues and yet the BSB omitted to consult the Bar on two changes that could impact on Barristers' professional lives for many years to come. The 6 month rule was the product of considerable work by a Bar working party, and yet the BSB has abrogated it in one stroke of the regulatory pen. As lay Commissioner, the excellent Mike Scott (a Falklands war veteran), must have saved many a Barrister from months of anguish by dismissing utterly hopeless complaints in limine. His successor, Rob Behrens, produced a brilliant paper on systemic reform and, to his great credit, was willing to listen to the Bar before imposing new rules or practices.
There are in fact a number of other important issues that require debate. I wrote about some of these in The Barrister in January 2010. I held a PABA seminar in October 2010 on such issues. As the seminar demonstrated, the Bar wishes to discuss reforms of its complaints processes. Most Barristers are thoughtful and constructive about these issues. To the BSB we say, do please speak to us. We wish to help you to regulate us, but please be fair and open. Before making sweeping changes in future, we do please ask you to consult with us.
