A short guide for Client Relations Managers - Helping your trainees with complaints

This short guide highlights some resources for CRMs to help trainees and less experienced staff to consider and discuss complaints, and to support better risk management by the firm.

Introduction

Complaints are a standard risk in any service industry. As CRMs, you know that - but you also know that there is a strong risk that your trainees and less experienced staff might generate complaints through insufficient awareness or experience, or struggle to deal well with a complaint if they receive it. This short guide highlights some resources and points that hopefully will help both trainees and CRMs to consider and discuss complaints, and to support better risk management by the firm.

Before their admission, any complaints arising from work that trainees did will be framed against their supervisor. After their admission, the complaint will be framed against both trainee and supervisor, on the basis that inadequate supervision could have played a part in the circumstances causing the complaint. All complaints about trainees are reported to the Law Society’s Education and Training Department, to allow the Admissions Committee to consider whether they might affect the trainee’s fitness to be admitted.

We try to speak to Diploma students at the universities, and we regularly participate in the CPD courses offered to trainees by some local bar associations and faculties. During these sessions, we have heard trainees’ views and experiences. We know they’re often very concerned about the prospect for a complaint to be made about them and the impact it might have on their career. They may see the traineeship as focusing on how to apply their academic learning to offer practical legal services, but they often don’t know much about how complaints are handled within their firm or what to do if they receive a complaint. That needs to be a core part of their induction, and part of the firm’s approach to risk management.

Rule B5 (and its guidance) sets out the obligations of CRMs. This specifies an overall responsibility for dealing with complaints, and keeping records of them, in the firm’s mandatory complaints register. Even if CRMs are not directly supervising trainees, they nonetheless have a key role to play in supporting their supervising colleagues and their trainees to understand and apply learning from all complaints, and to minimise the risk of future recurrence. In fact, a recent decision on a conduct complaint concluded that a CRM who was aware of a complaint involving a trainee should have taken an active role to ensure that the trainee’s supervisor did complete the required steps to resolve the issue.

Please get in touch if you would like to arrange any bespoke sessions, either for your own firm, or to local groups. We’re invested in promoting better handling of complaints and would like to help you do the same.

Step 1: The firm’s responsibility and approach

Knowing that complaints are a standard risk, it makes sense to plan to deal with them effectively. Complaints arise from individual facts, but they shouldn’t be considered in isolation from the context. A holistic approach across the whole firm can make it easier to recognise and minimise the risk, handle complaints better, and ensure that learning from them is distilled to all staff.

The starting point, to emphasise to every member of the firm, is that there should never be any attempt to discourage, present any obstacle, or threaten or imply that there will be any penalty or charge resulting from a complaint. 

We cannot over-emphasise the importance of this principle – as set out in this article and reinforced by the Guidance to Rule B1, which confirms various conduct decisions of the Law Society of Scotland (LSS) and Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal.

We recommend these as examples of simple but effective steps that firms can take to set the tone for good complaint handling: 

• make everyone in the firm aware that they play a role in managing risk, and that compliance is essential not just to minimising the risk of complaints, but for protecting the business
• encourage early reporting of client concerns by staff, and demonstrate the firm’s open, blame-free and supportive culture
• put the right policies and processes in place to deal with complaints effectively
• make everyone in the firm aware of where they can access these policies
• help fee-earners to know how far they should deal with any complaints, in the first instance, and how they can assist the CRM
• ensure that learning is taken from every complaint, by individuals and by the firm as a whole. Complaints should be a permanent agenda item for risk meetings, and the firm’s complaint log must be regularly updated and checked for trends
• implement any necessary changes swiftly, to correct shortcomings
• provide sufficient assistance to support the CRM in their challenging task – both in administrative back-up and in recognising the time that complaint-handling takes away from billing hours.

Step 2: Helping everyone to recognise complaints

Complaints are “Any expression of dissatisfaction” [Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007].

Complaints therefore don’t have to have a formal heading. They don’t even need to be in writing. It’s especially important that all staff in the firm are sensitive to when an “expression of dissatisfaction” is being made. 

Many firms ask for complaints to be put in writing – and that certainly helps you to record them accurately in your complaints log. For the same reason we encourage complainers to use written format, because we will ask for evidence that the firm has been notified of the complaint if they approach the SLCC. However, we also recognise that there may be circumstances where this could be impractical or unreasonable and we have the option to waive both the notice and any formality requirements.

Trainees should understand that the reason why complaints must usually first be made to the firm is not intended as imposing requirements or restrictions on the complainer. It is rather an opportunity for the firm to respond - and hopefully to resolve – the issues. However, if that isn’t possible, the complainer always has the right to complain to the SLCC. In most cases we won’t consider the complaint until the firm has had “reasonable time” (set in our Rules as 28 days) to respond. This is because we know that the earlier and more quickly matters are dealt with, the more likely that the complaint can settle amicably.

Step 3: Helping trainees understand the main risks

Both complaints and professional indemnity claims are more often underpinned by failings in administration or soft skills, than by mistakes in applying the law. Each year our annual report includes a breakdown of the work areas where complaints are seen, and the reasons for those complaints.

At the most basic level, complaints arise from a mismatch between the complainer’s expectations and what actually happened. 

Consistently, our statistics show that the main reason for this mismatch is poor communication. For this reason, we feel it’s vital for any training in the firm to start by emphasising the prime role that soft skills will play in the success of legal services, and by following up with active steps to assist trainees to improve the clarity of their communications.

The “Guidance for Lawyers” page on our website contains information about various ways in which practitioners might start to minimise their risk.

Perhaps the most obvious step is making trainees aware that they should always aim to comply with the LSS Rules and Guidance and the Standards of Service . We have a breakdown of how to minimise risk under the four themes set out in those Standards.

Trainees should also be aware of the option to contact the Professional Practice Team at the LSS for confidential and independent advice on ethical or practical queries. Seeking guidance and advice from within the firm and from trusted external sources should also be encouraged and supported.

Step 4: Finding opportunities to manage expectations 

Having said that most complaints arise through mismatch of expectations, it makes sense to find every opportunity to manage expectations consistently.

1.   Pre-instruction

Even before a firm has any personal engagement with a consumer, your website and marketing information provides the opportunity to manage expectations. More than 70% of consumers are now looking online to help them make choices, so it simply makes sense to take advantage of being in that space. Many firms make good use of videos, blogs and articles, not only to promote their own services, but to help manage expectations in advance of any instructions. Many younger people entering the profession probably have skills to assist the firm in producing these.

The LSS Price Transparency Guidance has applied since January 2021, yet many practitioners are still not making best use of the various opportunities it offers to manage expectations. You can read our report  for some suggestions as to how and where this guidance could be better used at various stages in firms, to help consumers not only gain a better understanding of what you are doing, but to appreciate the value of the work, which will minimise the risk of complaints from misperceptions. Given the growing demand for transparency, it’s even more important for trainees to be aware of these requirements even if they aren’t currently involved in management decisions.

2.   First meetings and instructions

You may like to compile some practical guidance or checklists for trainees to use in their meetings with clients, since the best instructions lead to the best solutions. Trainees may not instinctively understand that first meetings are not just about getting transactional details but should also be used to manage expectations about the solicitor’s role and function, to outline the scope of the work and any exclusions, and to emphasise that the client also plays a role in achieving their desired results. If guidance or further information is produced by the firm, it may supplement meetings with clients. Our own consumer guides aim to give consumers an indication of the types of questions that they might wish to cover off with their solicitors, for greater understanding. 

3.   Terms of Business

Rule B4 and its accompanying guidance set out what the terms of business / letters of engagement should contain. Another recent report examines how well a selected sample of firms were complying with the guidance and gives some suggestions on how terms can be improved. If your trainees haven’t read your firm’s terms of business, they should. And they should be asked to give you honest feedback on how they could be improved. Bearing in mind that the primary purpose of the terms is to manage client expectations, the firm needs to emphasise that clients should read them – and therefore make them readable. If the firm prefers to use just one standard terms of business, you might like to encourage trainees to tell clients which clauses do not apply and which are particularly important, to supplement their earlier conversations.

4.   Feedback

Asking the client for feedback at all stages of the transaction is vital to promoting trust and reinforcing the firm’s marketing messages about personalised service. It’s also the best way to pick up any early expressions of dissatisfaction and address them to prevent a minor issue from escalating further. Even if your firm uses a standard form of requesting feedback, it’s important to help trainees to have effective conversations at any point where the client may raise concerns or give negative feedback. 

5.   Ongoing clarity

Many of our blogs also emphasise the importance of ongoing clarity, both when doing the work, and when preparing the fee notes. We suggest your trainees might like to check out some of the practical tips on how to promote more effective communication, and therefore better understanding, throughout the transaction. Many of the Journal articles also provide very useful guidance and tips.

Step 5: Dealing with complaints

Hopefully the good practical advice that you can give to trainees to improve their approach and communication during a transaction will assist them in keeping clients more informed and more satisfied. But, accepting that complaints are a standard risk, trainees need to be supported and know how to deal with them too.

For this reason, trainees need to know about, and be able to access:

The firm’s complaints policy. Rule B5 and its supporting guidance specify that every firm must have a written complaints policy and provide it on request to any complainer. Trainees should be familiar with this policy and able to use it as needed. They should appreciate that the purpose of the policy is to manage expectations about how the complaint can be made, and how, when and by whom it will be dealt with in the firm. Even if details have been included in the terms of business, an upset client may not remember them, and a third party wouldn’t have seen them. Please again emphasise to trainees that nobody should ever be discouraged – actively or by implication – from making a complaint. It’s also important to stress that the SLCC should also be signposted in correspondence about complaints.

The SLCC’s statutory guidance: Improve your complaints process

This guidance aims to assist practitioners to put their policy into practice. Not only should trainees be aware of the principles behind applying the policy effectively, but also understand that the effect of this being statutory guidance means it’s the benchmark against which the SLCC will assess how well individuals and firms have handled complaints, which in turn may affect our recommendations and any associated complaints levy if the complaint is upheld.

The SLCC’s tips for answering complaints

These focus on:

- Explaining (what will happen next, giving the complainer a chance to air their views)

- Exploring (what might be most appropriate to resolve the complaint)

- Responding (appropriately).

Practical implementation strategies

Although trainees may not be handling complaint conversations alone in the early stages, it will be helpful to give them the chance to observe conversations or to talk about appropriate responses to complaints with more experienced solicitors. They may find it helpful to practise responding, in simulated situations, to assess and be able to shape their own reactions. It’s also important that they understand what the CRM will expect from them if a complaint is made, and that they see the final responses drafted by CRMs.

Although we know that in many cases CRMs will answer complaints, we will also ask individual solicitors if they wish to comment and there may be circumstances when it is more appropriate that individual solicitors outline their own recollections of a situation. 

The SLCC’s complaint analysis tool

Although this tool was drawn primarily to assist CRMs, it can also potentially be used as the basis for discussing how either real or sample situations may have been handled better and what changes are appropriate. You might also like to use the examples from

The SLCC’s case studies

These are updated on the case studies page of our website.  

Step 6: Recognising the needs of trainees

So far, we’ve been focusing on expectations of complainers. But of course, it’s equally important to recognise that complaints take their toll too on solicitors. While the purpose of a traineeship is to “stretch” trainees beyond their comfort zones to realise and expand their abilities, this can be counter-productive if they are being asked to take on too much work, or the wrong type of work that doesn’t match their competencies, or if they don’t get the right support that allows them time and space to apply effective quality assurance to every task. As outlined, much of so called “human error” can also be underpinned by systemic problems.

Please make trainees aware of the confidential support that is available from LawCare and LawScot Wellbeing .

The most problematic complaints can arise where there’s inherent difficulty because of the complex nature of the allegations or situation, or where there is an unfortunate or challenging attitude or allegations from an upset complainer. It’s important for trainees to be aware that making a complaint can add an extra layer of stress to someone who may already be in a vulnerable situation, and to be aware of how to respond appropriately and reassure complainers that their concerns will be taken seriously. However, it may also be useful for firms to have unacceptable actions policies, for the protection of staff, and therefore important for trainees to know what these say, and who will handle situations where the policy may need to be invoked.

Effective supervision and training are an essential component in the traineeship. Many things that are obvious to more senior employees may simply not occur to trainees. Some professional indemnity claims have resulted from checklists not mentioning what might seem basic initial steps. Whether or not the firm offers structured learning and development, it’s important to emphasise to trainees that there is no such thing as a silly question. Sometimes the most effective way to draw out misunderstandings or areas needing further discussion is by using examples such as the case studies on our website, or the short reminders in our social media . Any supervision should be supported by comprehensive evaluations, including a focus on the soft skills that are so important to managing the risk of complaints.

Employee wellbeing has been covered in several articles in the Journal. It may be worth signposting these to trainees, and considering whether the firm wishes to implement any of the suggestions. A blame-free culture in the firm can certainly ease the emotional toll that complaints can bring for practitioners. Some trainees will be better equipped to manage this instinctively than others, who may need reassurance and support.

It's important too for everyone in the firm to recognise that the way to improve is by taking learning from every experience. In the words of a quotation attributed to various people: “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment”.

And we’ve all been there….

Engagement with regulators can only benefit trainees as they move on in their careers, so please do encourage them to give proper attention to their CPD sessions, particularly those on risk, and to engage openly with the regulators if they have any queries.

Finally, we’d encourage CRMs to contact us with any further suggestions on how we might offer more support for trainees in dealing with complaints. Since we know the best examples of good complaint handling are the ones that we don’t see, please feel free to pass on any examples of practices you have implemented successfully to manage complaints better in your firms, so that we can share them anonymously with others.