Annual Report 2011 - Legal Services Commissioner

Finalised complaints
The LSC finalised 2,609 complaints in
2010-11, which included complaints
received in previous years. The LSC
finalised 31% more complaints this
year compared with the previous year.
This is due to a number of initiatives
introduced by the LSC to try and
minimise delays and reduce the
Figure 9: Finalised complaints
number of outstanding complaints.
These initiatives included the
establishment of the RRT and the
Investigations Team. The introduction
of the RRT process also led to
a dramatic reduction in the file
loads of complaint handlers, which
enabled staff to devote more time to
finalising outstanding complaints and
investigating more serious complaints.
Older and more complex complaints
were also dealt with by a specialist
project team, which further reduced
the file loads of complaint handlers.
Figure 9 shows the number of
complaints finalised in 2010-11
by complaint type.
Year Civil Disciplinary Mixed (Civil &
Disciplinary)
Total
2010-11 836 (32%) 1,322 (51%) 451 (17%) 2,609
2009-10 455 (26%) 923 (51%) 418 (23%) 1,796
2008-09 534 (28%) 1,101 (58%) 258 (14%) 1,893
Time taken to finalise
complaints
Figure 10 shows the time taken
to resolve complaints in 2010-11
compared with the time taken in
previous years. The LSC closed 505
complaints within a 30 day period
compared with 311 in 2009-10. The LSC
finalised 582 complaints within a 31-90
day period, which is 31% more than the
number finalised in the same period of
time in 2009-10. Approximately half of
the complaints were finalised within a
period of 120 days or more. This may
be due to the efforts of a specialist
project team that was established in
April 2010 to finalise complaints that
have been outstanding for a period of
12 months or more. These complaints
often contain complex issues that need
to be thoroughly analysed to determine
the most appropriate way for resolving
the complaint. The specialist project
team is responsible for ensuring
that matters progress to the resolution
stage with minimal further delay.
The project team finalised 301 matters
during the reporting year.
Figure 10: Time taken to finalise complaints
Days since receipt of complaint < 30 31-60 61-90 91- 120 +120 Total
Civil Dispute
2010-11 217 152 119 94 254 836
2009-10 119 76 51 57 152 455
2008-09 117 102 81 60 174 534
Disciplinary
2010-11 265 147 121 94 695 1,322
2009-10 155 112 97 81 478 923
2008-09 242 140 106 88 525 1,101
Mixed (Civil & Disciplinary)
2010-11 23 19 24 23 362 451
2009-10 37 26 37 47 271 418
2008-09 34 34 33 20 137 258
TOTAL
2010-11 505 318 264 211 1,311 2,609
2009-10 311 214 185 185 901 1,796
2008-09 393 276 220 168 836 1,893
20 Legal Services COMMISSIONER Annual Report 2011