The Legal Services Oversight Commissioner (the ‘Commissioner’) role was established by the Legal Complaints and Regulation Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (the ‘Act’). The Act was a result of a review of legal services in Northern Ireland.
The Act sets out requirements, on the legal professional bodies of the Law Society of Northern Ireland and the Bar of Northern Ireland, to put in place procedures for the handling of complaints in relation to professional legal services. This includes the establishment of the Solicitors Complaints Committee and the Bar Complaints Committee, with procedures that are led by lay people. This moves away from the previous system whereby legal professionals led the service complaints process.
The Commissioner carries out a strategic oversight role of the service complaints processes and does not handle individual complaints. The Commissioner may require the professional body to provide reports on the complaints handling process or statistics in relation to service complaints. The Commissioner may also set complaints handling targets, require that a professional body submit a complaints handling plan, and make recommendations for complaints handling or professional training. The Act also sets out requirements for consultation and information sharing with the Commissioner.
The annual report of the Commissioner sets out the statistics and trends of the complaints processes, with findings and recommendations. It also provides an overview of the delivery of the Commissioner function throughout the year.
The Commissioner is publicly appointed by the Minister of Finance, in consultation with the Lady Chief Justice, and, under the terms of the Act, the appointee must not be, and must never have been, a solicitor or barrister.