On 21 March, Lord Falconer announced the Govern-ment’s endorsement of Sir David Clementi’s recommendations for reform of legal services. All the signs indicate that any third Labour Government would aim to implement reforms quickly. Within a year or two, there could be significant changes in the way many negligence claims are determined.
A cornerstone of Clementi’s reform is the creation of the Office for Legal Complaints – a single independent body for all consumer complaints against all lawyers. This would provide “quick and fair” redress to consumers on individual complaints. It would also have a higher-level strategic role – for example, setting targets for practitioners on the handling of complaints in-house, and overseeing the suitability of the compulsory insurance rules implemented by the frontline bodies (the Law Society and the Bar Council).
