Dear Brian,

I have had the same problems with the Complaints Department of the Law Society and the Legal Services Ombudsman's Office and the Parliamentary Ombudsman all of whom are just there more or less to deflect complaints. At the Law Society Complaints Department a solicitor was dealing with my complaint about my solicitor but despite her making a finding that he had provided me with a serious level of poor service when she asked the solicitor to make me an offer of money to reflect the seriousness of the matter he astoundingly and insultingly offered me Fifty Three Pounds. I did not accept this and the solicitor at the Law Society dealing with my complaint said it was an unreasonable offer of compensation since had asked him in writing to make me an offer that reflected the seriousness of the poor service he had given me but he clearly has complete contempt for the Complaints Department. The matter has now gone to the Adjudicator of the Complaints Department at the Law Society.

In another matter I had cause to go to the Legal Services Ombudsman and found them almost as useless as the Complaints Department of the Law Society. Like you they said they had dealt with all my complaints but had not done that at all. This related to another solicitor I had in this matter.

Since then I have obtained a Counsel's Opinion in which a London Counsel has said that sine the Judge cannot be sued over what he did that perhaps the person to sue is the solicitor who left me with no legal representation after the Judge refused an adjournment. I got a negligence solicitor who in June 2003 in his initial written advice to me said that there was an arguable case my other solicitor had been negligent and that he would read the transcripts and give me his concluding advice but it is now 2006 and I never received it. After 9 months of anguish waiting for the concluding advice to come I asked my solicitor if he could get a Counsel's Advice on whether the other solicitor had been negligent and he said he would but despite this allowed the limitation period to sue the other solicitor to pass in April 2005 although he had had some 2 years to either produce his concluding advice himself or get the Counsel's Opinion I had asked for. I then made a complaint to the Complaints Department of the Law Society who in December 2005 made a finding that the second solicitor although a negligence solicitor had provided me with a serious level of poor service and the solicitor in writing was asked to make me an offer of compensation to reflect the seriousness of the poor service he had givne me but he astoundingly made me an offer of Fifty Three Pounds thus showing incredible contempt for the Complaints Department of the Law Society and for me. I refused it and now the Adjudicator is dealing with the matter and will decide how much I get. You may know the compensation for poor service has recently gone up to Fiftenn Thousand Pounds but apparently they rarely give compensation of more than One Thousand Pounds which is totally wrong since from the outset solicitors know they can give you an appalling service and then get away with only having to give you a paltry sum of money for having wasted years and letting a limitation period pass. I would now have to sue this solicitor for loss of opportunity over his negligence to get compensation for my losses which are around Three Hundred Thousand Pounds.

In 2001 Which produced a report on solicitors in which they called them "arrogant, incompetent, negligent and unprofessional".

The Department of Constitutional Affairs currently have a Consultation Paper entitled "Putting Consumers First" in which Lord Falconer says that a separate body needs to deal with complaints about solicitors since it is perceived to be unfair that the Law Society deals with complaints and yet represents the legal professsion. You can get it on the internet if you want to have a look at it.

Kindest regards,

"I have been asked to withhold Name and e-mail address"