Poor advice 'should cost lawyers'

The review wants more oversight of lawyers

Lawyers in Northern Ireland who give poor service to clients should pay them compensation, a review has said.

It is one of a series of measures proposed by the Legal Services Review Group, which examined how solicitors and barristers are regulated.

The group placed strengthened oversight at the heart of their proposals.

In a report to the government they suggested the creation of a Legal Services Oversight Commissioner to handle complaints.

Review Group chairman, Professor Sir George Bain, said that in future, panels mostly drawn from outside the legal profession should hear complaints and that the chair of the panel should be someone who does not come from a legal background.

"It is our view that consumers should be eligible for compensation if they have suffered poor service at the hands of their legal representative," he said.

Sir George said the group - made up of representatives from the legal professions, the voluntary, consumer and business sectors and from academia - felt their recommendations were proportionate and potentially of benefit to users of legal services in the province.

Report submitted

"The legal professions in Northern Ireland discharge their regulatory functions in a reasonably effective manner, but we found areas where improvements were required," he said.

"Our proposals aim to do just that, and will provide consumers here with additional protection against the few lawyers who do not provide the level of service that is expected of them."

The report has been formally submitted to David Hanson, the Northern Ireland Office minister responsible for regulating solicitors in the province.

Current practice in Northern Ireland is for complaints against solicitors to be handled by the Law Society, under the oversight of the Lay Observer.

However the Lay Observer only has power to recommend and cannot require action or award financial compensation.

The review was commissioned by the Government in September last year in response to a report in England and Wales and other similar reviews taking place in Scotland and the Irish Republic.