No complaints as legal resolutions team enters a challenging new year
Vicky Crichton is ready to embrace fresh ways to deal with legal complaints
How do you redesign a system so that it works efficiently and effectively for everyone? It feels like it should be easy – just make it as simple and straightforward as possible, right? But as anyone who has ever tried to do this knows, it’s a far trickier undertaking.
That’s the task that faces us now as we start work to reform the complaints system we provide for legal services consumers across Scotland. Some decisions about how it will work have already been made by Parliament and hardwired into new legislation that will come into force this year. Others will need further consideration and input from our users and stakeholders as we develop our plans.
For example, there’s always a balance between being thorough and being efficient even if, ideally, we all want both. Being fair to everyone involved seems like a no-brainer until you have to weigh up giving an extension to one party to help them to engage with the process while being mindful of the impact of that delay on others.
Tricky stuff, but we’re excited to be getting stuck into thinking about how we can improve the system for everyone who uses, delivers or comes into contact with it.
Many of the changes were inspired by things our staff told us didn’t work in practice or caused unnecessary delays, distress or unwanted outcomes.
Our Consumer Panel highlighted the parts of the system consumers found the most difficult or which undermined their confidence in us - or, worse still, the things that could put people off complaining in the first place.
We heard from legal services providers about issues they found most challenging and what would help them to better deal with and resolve complaints before they escalated.
Our job now is to take all that learning, and our experience of operating the existing complaints system for 18 years, and channel all that into developing it afresh.
Along the way, we’ll think about how what we do helps to drive consumer confidence and trust in legal services. When people know there’s help available if things go wrong, their confidence rises. To do that we listen to consumers to understand their needs and concerns and the journey they expect us to take them on.
We’ll also be working to create a system that is future-proofed, not just for today’s digital world and an increasingly AI-driven tomorrow, but for all of the changes and developments we can’t yet foresee.
At its heart will be good customer service. Because that is what people rightfully expect to receive, and what our staff want to deliver. For all of the focus on systems and processes, what’s important is that people feel heard and understood. The process we design needs to make that happen, not get in the way of it.
It helps that our team spends a lot of time thinking about what good (and poor) service looks like. We know poor service often comes at a higher cost in terms of staff time and energy to put right, let alone any financial cost. And we know reports of both good and poor customer service can either encourage or put people off using our service.
So we’re starting 2026 excited for the challenge to come and looking forward to working with consumers and legal services providers to shape a great complaints service – one that meets all our needs and expectations.
Vicky Crichton is Director of Public Policy, Scottish Legal Complaints Commission