About The SLCC

The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) is an independent statutory body providing a single point of contact for all complaints against legal practitioners operating in Scotland. The SLCC investigate and resolve complaints about inadequate professional services; refer conduct complaints to the relevant professional body and have oversight of complaint handling across the profession. Our mediation service is recognised as a leading example of best practice.

The SLCC operates independently of the legal profession and government and aims to resolve complaints early, efficiently and effectively and to improve complaints handling across the profession. Through this work we aim to improve trust and confidence in Scottish legal services.

The introduction of the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007 created the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission; and we opened for business on 1 October 2008. Our annual report has key facts and figures about case numbers and outcomes, providing a useful summary and overview of the work of the SLCC. Our website has more detail on all aspects of our work.

In the spring of 2016 the SLCC consulted extensively on a new strategy for the organisation (to cover the period 2016 to 2020) and received feedback from a range of legal and consumer bodies, and on 1 July 2016 launched our new approach. Details of the strategy (and our current annual operating plan and budget) are available on the SLCC’s website. The strategy was a significant milestone, representing a continuing commitment to the SLCC’s independent adjudication of complaints, but with a greater focus on early resolution where possible and on engaging and supporting consumers in the complaints process. We also prioritised work to lead the call for legislative reform of the system. Our five aims, and five values, are:

We currently deal with around 1,200 complaints per year, and are in our third year of steady growth in complaints numbers. We use mediation and conciliation to try to resolve matters informally with parties, but also have legal powers to make a final determination and award up to £20,000 of compensation. We publish guides for consumers and for lawyers to help reduce the common causes of complaints and support best practice. We have statutory duties to monitor trends in complaints and the effectiveness of indemnity arrangements in the professions. We also can assist with complaints about how one of the professional bodies in the sector has dealt with a conduct complaint. Finally, as non-lawyer owned businesses start to enter the market in the coming months, the first time this will have been possible in Scotland, we take on a new complaints functions in relation to these businesses, as well as assessing complaints against the new ‘Approved Regulators’ of these businesses.