Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. The SCOTTISH LEGAL COMPLAINTS COMMISSION, which we have all come to know as one of the most useless quangos in existence, originally created as a result of the Legal Profession & Legal Aid Act (Scotland) 2007 to clean up regulation of Scotland’s legal services industry, has been forced to go on a recruitment drive offering posts at the hapless, anti-client complaints quango at around £42K a year, including a pension.
Sounds like a good deal ? £807 a week plus perks, plus a pension to fiddle complaints against crooked lawyers and make sure consumers have no protection against the worst legal services in existence, plus the chance to meet with the flotsam from the Law Society ? Well if that is your game, I’d say go for it.
This new need for additional staff in the quango (which recently advertised it holds a massive £1.5million in surplus funds, while refusing to pay back its public funding of nearly £2 million), is not due to the SLCC’s heavy workload of investigating complaints against crooked lawyers, because there is apparently no heavy workload at the SLCC as I revealed last week here most complaints have been passed back to the Law Society of Scotland, the well known, infamous self regulator which usually lets ‘crooked lawyers’ off the hook.
One legal insider said this afternoon : “Working at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission is a bit like being in the trenches. Neither staff teams from the former Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman’s office or the Law Society trust each other. At times the air can be cut with a knife.”
SLCC Board members racked up a staggering £135K a year in expenses claims yet quango hardly does any work. In spite of the SLCC’s roll of infamy to-date, mired in scandals involving everything from huge expenses payouts to its board members, a systematic failure to deal with complaints on any level, consistent failures to address its duties emanating from the Legal Profession & Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007, media exposes on its members drunken hate filled, booze fuelled rants against consumers, reformers, critics and even victims of crooked lawyers, there are a few positions now available at Scotland’s least worked quango, which appears to be following very much in the vein of the Law Society of Scotland, as each day passes.
Fancy being called to the bars with SLCC Board members ? It could be you ! Consumer protection, we never got, and never can expect from this tragic gathering of people who have no intention of helping victims of the legal profession, but we can certainly expect ever rising expenses claims from its board members, many of whom appear to have several other highly paid jobs & quango positions, while the SLCC’s task of investigating complaints, is mostly left to rot. You can read my previous coverage of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and how it really has done nothing for regulation, or consumer confidence in the legal profession HERE.
Below, is the latest job offerings from the SLCC, where anti-client, anti-consumer lawyer friendly individuals who know how to whitewash a complaint, should definitely apply – sounds like just the job for any ex-Law Society staff.
Jobs at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
Case Investigation Manager & Gateway Team Manager
CASE INVESTIGATIONS MANAGER (refIM1)
GATEWAY TEAM MANAGER (ref GW1)
Salary for both posts in the region of £41,944. Group Self Invested Personal Pension + Benefits
The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) is a corporate body operating independently of the legal profession and the government. It was set up by Statute to modernise the legal complaints handling system, to ensure complaints are resolved quickly and effectively. We are looking for people with the vision, determination and drive to form a key part of our management team and lead our people, achieve objectives and play a central role in making a real impact for the people of Scotland.
You will provide leadership and team management to your team, organising staff and other resources to deal with complaints in accordance with the SLCC's Complaint Handling Procedures and quality standards. You will support and develop your team and as a member of the management team you will assist in the review and further develop our policies and procedures to provide a high quality, efficient complaints handling service.
To be successful in this role you will be educated to degree level or equivalent and ideally will have a legal or comparable qualification and a supervisory management qualification.
You will have demonstrable experience in writing and providing procedural advice and guidance, including drafting reports and be able to demonstrate leadership and management skills. You will have a track record of significant achievement with a minimum of 3 years people and performance management experience. A working knowledge of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook is essential. You will be an effective communicator who is well organised and delivers work on time and to the agreed level of quality. Ideally you will be able to influence at local, national and strategic levels, with the personal and professional manner to command confidence of stakeholders.
- Application Pack Summary (PDF 38KB)
Application Form (PDF 56KB)
Diversity Monitoring Form (PDF 42KB)
Terms and Conditions (PDF 24KB)
Case Investigations Manager Person Specification (PDF 33KB) - Case Investigations Manager Job Description (PDF 53KB)
Gateway Team Manager Person Specification (PDF 33KB)
Gateway Team Manager Job Description (PDF 54KB)
To Apply:
Please contact Rick Mattison on 0131 243 2981 or rickmattison@uk.michaelpage.com, quoting reference MPTJ13091641. Please return your completed application and diversity monitoring form to Rick Mattison at Michael Page. Closing date for applications is Friday 5 March 2009. SLCC short listing will take place on Monday 22 March and interviews will be held on Monday 29, Tuesday 30, Wednesday 31 March 2010.
32 comments:
Sounds like a good deal ? £807 a week plus perks, plus a pension to fiddle complaints against crooked lawyers and make sure consumers have no protection against the worst legal services in existence, plus the chance to meet with the flotsam from the Law Society ? Well if that is your game, I’d say go for it.
LOL !! What a bunch of crooks !!
Wont say his name but I know someone at the SLCC who holds/held the job title now up for grabs you posted.If he's gone it must be bad.
Jane & all you should be ashamed of yourselves.
I think the SLCC are having a big laugh at us.
Time to give them a bloody kick up the erse no ?
Oh, so 3 years after it was formed the SLCC recognizes it is not presently fit for purpose, wonderful.
Just make sure, if you are considering applying, that you have those really important and necessary qualifications in IT software to do the job properly.
Looking for more crooked lawyers to work are they now ?
Hope you give them a few sleepless nights with all this attention.
You have my blessing to pull this ill advised quango to bits.
Good luck.
AM
£807 a week plus perks, plus a pension !
Why are these people being paid so much just to protect bent lawyers ??
Disgusting!
The SLCC is nothing but a bunch of crooks, their remit is to protect the Corrupt Legal Profession and the dishonest and corrupt Solicitors and Advocates. The SLCC is full of the top corrupt legal experts in Scotland, this body was set up to protects them. A new organisation must be set up to regulate Solicitors and Advoates which must be made up of 100% of victims of the corrupt legal profession, no Solicitors what so ever on the Complaints organisation, if one Solicitor or Advocate is involved it will be contam inated with corruption and help for the corrupt Legal system. The Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates is just a cesspool of sewage, of lying, corrupt people that are nothing but vermin, stealing and plundering everything they can from their clients, before they sell them down the river, by either loosing their cases, or use up all their money, then withdrawing from their clients case before the trial, so that they are left with no money and no representation, thus colluding with the other side to defeat their own clients case, that they have been paid to help them with. Only victims must be on the new regulating body, they and they alone know how the corrupt system works, and it is only victims that can put an end to the corrupt system.
Some of the garbage the SLCC use to defeat complaints.
NO EVIDENCE.
NO DOCUMENTS.
SOLICITOR COMPLAINED ABOUT HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF CLIENT.
COMPLAINT LACKING IN SPECIFICATION AND DETAIL.
COMPLAINT VEXATIOUS.
SOLICITOR HAS NOT BEEN PAID, EVEN IF CLIENT HAS RECEIPTS.
IF A CORRUPT SOLICITOR HAD ADMITTED FRAUD OR NEGLECT, THE CORRUPT SLCC WOULD STILL DEFEAT THE COMPLAINT AGAINST THE SOLICITOR OR ADVOCATE.
The question that requires answering is, how much money is this corrupt SLCC getting from the Solicitors and Advocates in brown paper envelopes to defeat complaints against the Solicitors and Advocates.
F*king b*stards the lot of them
You are going to make me burst a vein with all this slcc scandal scum they should be jailed all of them bloody money grabbing lawyer protectors
Nice little job there for you Peter but you'd have to shut your blog up or else !
SLCC are a bunch of crooks I have a friend who has got nowhere with them after nearly a year and lots of letters getting nowhere on his complaint
Will tell him to contact you with more info
That is quite a heavy post to lose at the SLCC so soon.Did they wise up to the fact they are just aiding & abetting crooked lawyers ?
Had a look at the forms, wont apply as it sounds a terrible place to be.
Anyway I'm not up for protecting bent lawyers who should all be sent straight to hell.
I like the "Called to the Bars" story in the newspaper clip - sounds very appropriate for what this bunch are getting up to!
A prerequisite of getting a job with the SLCC is you must be a Paedophile with plenty connections with other paedophiles in the legal profession, be a crooked Solicitor of Advocate, preference will be given to those with convictions for dishonesty. Any Solicitor who is a personal friend of that crook Yelland at the Law Society of Scotland, you are either a drunk of a registered alcholic, been a drug user and now on methadone, been declared mentally insane, a bankrupt or have criminal convictions for dishonesty, have been in prison for a minimum of 12 months. preference will be given to those with as many of the above qualities as possible.
In reply to the comment at 8:57PM
Who wants to work at a morally bankrupt organisation ruled by the Law Society when you know your work is wasted.
Better to bail out before you get tarred with the same brush as the rest.
£807 a week + pension at the SLCC = BLOOD MONEY FROM CLIENTS OWN BLOOD
Did you spot this garbage in the hootsmon by Lorna Jack ?
http://business.scotsman.com/legalissues/Maintaining-values-and-integrity-key.6091656.jp
Maintaining values and integrity key to future regulation
Published Date: 22 February 2010
By Lorna Jack
She must be smoking something to come out with all that crap
Blogspot wont let me publish this in one comment so here it is over two
http://business.scotsman.com/legalissues/Maintaining-values-and-integrity-key.6091656.jp
Maintaining values and integrity key to future regulation
Published Date: 22 February 2010
By Lorna Jack
WHAT is the Law Society for? It is there to create and maintain a professional standard for solicitors in Scotland, which includes representing the interests of the profession and of the public in relation to the profession.
As a membership body, decisions are made by its council, made up of members elected and co-opted from the profession and with four non-solicitor observers. Its key decisions on rules and policies are, as with the policy on alternative business structures (ABSs), made at general meetings and, as with the ABS policy, following consultation with its members.
The 92 responses to the Society's three-month ABS consultation came from individuals and organisations representing thousands of members, such as the In-House Lawyers Group and the law agents, as well as firms large and small which represent the views of thousands of solicitors.
Solicitors, at a conference organised by the Society to debate ABSs, were informed by the justice minister in 2008 that "no change was not an option".
Each and every member was asked to contribute to the consultation on which the Society's ABS policy paper was based, and had the opportunity to vote on the paper at the 2008 AGM. There, 801 votes were for the proposal to support change and introduce ABSs while 132 were against. Approximately 600 of the votes in favour, which included proxy votes, were from some of Scotland's bigger law firms.
The Society's work on ABSs proceeded on the basis of the AGM vote. Not to do so would have been extraordinary action, which would rightly call the Society into question by its members.
The Government's Legal Services Bill has certainly been shaped by the Society's policy paper, but has also been influenced by other factors, not least the enormous changes in business practice by firms and their regulatory environment.
The Society and solicitors' profession was given the opportunity to change or be changed, to get involved in creating the best model for Scotland, or have someone else decide on the future direction of legal services in Scotland.
The Bill is ongoing – the Stage 1 debate is next month – and the Society has consistently made representations on the need for independence of the legal profession, protection of core values and access to justice, and a level playing field for legal service providers.
Indeed, these are all stipulated in the Bill, but the Society has called for the role of the Lord President to be strengthened to ensure independence and seeks assurance of sound client protections.
Clients must be able to expect standards equivalent to those of the Scottish legal profession at the moment. The more we can work together on that, the more likely we will achieve that outcome.
The Scottish Law Agents Society is entitled to call an SGM and the Society can divert the resources it has to organising and holding the meeting. If the profession changes its policy on ABSs, the Society would promote that policy.
The Society is a statutory body and must regulate solicitors. It also intends to apply for the role of "approved regulator" of any new structures as a result of the Bill.
On 12 February, we published a consultation paper on the types of business the Society could regulate and the principles which should be applied. This has gone to all our members as we need their input to develop a regulatory system which works effectively. This work must be done now, so we are urging the profession to give us its views to help determine the kinds of legal service providers the Society should regulate in the future.
While it cannot be disputed a professional body always has a tension between its regulatory and representative roles, it is that tension that binds the profession and maintains its reputation as a profession of value and integrity. For more than a year, the Society has increased focus on its representative role by reviewing services, asking members about services and support, increasing resources and appointing a director of representation and support. Recent research showed that there was support for all current services continuing and more being developed.
Lawyers have always moved with the market and thrived on change, and the profession is for many a profitable business. It is not for the Society to protect that market, but it is for the Society to protect the core values. That is why legal service providers proposed under the Bill must be well regulated and adhere to the professional standards currently upheld.
To make sure that happens, we are creating the opportunity for all solicitors to be involved in the discussions, to respond to the current consultation and to work together to protect independence and core values of the profession.
• Lorna Jack is the chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland.
• This article is a response to the piece run last week by the Scottish Law Agents Society.
also found this lawyers are losing lots of money Great ! but they will probably be stealing more to recoup ?
http://business.scotsman.com/legalissues/Legal-firms39-39year-of-turmoil39.6091530.jp
Legal firms' 'year of turmoil' hits profits
Published Date: 22 February 2010
By Erikka Askeland
A SURVEY of the top 100 UK law firms has laid bare a "year of turmoil" as reductions in fee income, fees per partner and profits per partner led to an overall decline in profits among firms of 30 per cent.
Mike McCusker, a Glasgow-based partner with report authors PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the last year has "seen the greatest turmoil in the law firm sector" since its survey began in 1991.
"It was quite clear at the time of our last survey that law firms would not be immune from economic crisis," said McCusker. "As it turns out, the impact across the sector has been even greater than we anticipated."
Scottish firms suffered an even greater fall in profits than their counterparts south of the Border. PWC said this was a result of a "conscious decision" among Scots not to cut operating and staff costs as sharply as English firms had.
Although a net profit margin in Scotland of 31 per cent was consistent with the UK average for similar-sized firms, property costs were on average higher in Scotland – 10.5 per cent compared to 9 per cent in England.
PWC said a number of Scottish firms had spent the past 12 months either considering or embarking on redundancy programmes, with support staff seeing the greatest number of job losses. With confidence remaining weak that revenues will grow this year, it is expected headcount reductions will continue in 2010. No Scottish firms surveyed said they were confident about prospects for revenue growth this year.
Despite the gloom, some of the larger Scottish firms said they had seen an increase in average fees per partner – up to an average of £940,000 from £890,000 in 2008. As many as 60 per cent of Scottish firms believe that this will continue in 2010 compared to 55 per cent of firms UK wide.
More Scottish practices said they were counting on corporate merger and acquisition activity as a means to boost income this year. Only 12 per cent of firms polled cited M&A as a growth opportunity, while 30 per cent in Scotland did. Scottish firms were also better than their UK counterparts at collecting on bills. The survey said Scottish firms' focus on recovering payments outperformed the UK average, with debtor days averaging 75 in Scotland compared to 83 across the UK.
The survey also showed that Scottish firms spent "significantly" less on secretarial support, IT and marketing than their UK counterparts, but invested 30 per cent more on HR and training.
McCusker warned that operating models for UK law firms were under "severe stress" and the prospect of mergers or business failures could not be discounted.
"Survival in the current form for some firms may prove a challenge if market conditions do not rapidly improve," he said.
"As we look towards the future, the survey clearly shows that structural change is already happening in the Scottish and UK legal profession."
He added: "The catalyst of the recession has led firms to focus on efficiency, cost reductions by structural change and headcount cuts in both fee earner and support staff headcount. However, the full impact in terms of profitability following any redundancy programmes may not be seen until 2010-11."
I just wanted to tell you Mr Cherbi I complained about my solicitor taking money directly out my bank account for a fake bill I reported it to the SLCC and told them they would also have to report it to the POlice but they wrote back refusing to do it so they failed to report a crime where my solicitor stole money for himself
Thanks for your comments on this article.
# Anonymous @ 9.32pm
Yes indeed, and from what sources have told me, the SLCC is not looking for anyone who will make a difference in regulating complaints against the legal profession ...
As an insider put it "The Law Society are still calling the shots"
# Anonymous @ 10.06pm
A fair description of the SLCC, I agree.
# Anonymous @ 10.31pm
No thanks, I will never be a paid apologist for crooked lawyers. Besides, a workplace environment where the only living thing you can trust is a dog (Dougie) ... well ...
# Anonymous @ 1.11am
Yes .. looks like some problems at the SLCC when these kinds of posts come up so soon ...
# Anonymous @ 1.10pm
Yes, it amounts to that, as it is solicitors' client who are having to pay, through increased fees, for the upkeep of the SLCC, along with the salaries, board members expenses, etc etc ...
# Anonymous @ 3.21pm
The Lorna Jack story, yes I've read it thanks.
Total rubbish of course, the Law Society have no interest in protecting clients, all they care about is maintaining their status as regulator so they have power over both clients & solicitors.
Expect regular whitewashing of complaints involving everything as long as the Law Society (and the SLCC) play any part in regulating or discipline of solicitors or advocates.
# Anonymous @ 3.22pm
They have themselves to blame for their financial woes ..
# Anonymous @ 3.43pm
Contact me with all the details and I will report it.
Theft is still a crime even if its committed by a lawyer - despite what the Crown Office and some Police might have you believe .... perhaps a few headlines might help.
Jack must be out of her skull.
No one swallows that rubbish now.
Jack must be so happy to get her propaganda word for word in the Scotsman.
Perish the thought some poor bloody client ripped off by her bastard colleagues were able to write how they felt about the Law Society and this bullshit non existent integrity she speaks of.
# Anonymous @ 5.37pm
Well, as one insider said, "its all about who pays for advertising and the occasional call to heel from you-know-who" ... whatever that may mean ...
# Anonymous @ 10.31pm
"No thanks, I will never be a paid apologist for crooked lawyers. Besides, a workplace environment where the only living thing you can trust is a dog (Dougie) ... well ..."
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL !!!!!
Anonymous said...
F*king b*stards the lot of them
You are going to make me burst a vein with all this slcc scandal scum they should be jailed all of them bloody money grabbing lawyer protectors
10:15 PM
===================================
Print leaflets and distribute them and copy and paste the SLCC Law Society Logo from their website, tell everyone DO NOT TRUST THE SLCC, LAW SOCIETY AND SCOTTISH LEGAL PROFESSIONALS. THEN THEIR BLOOD VESSELS WILL BURST, NOT YOURS.
To the person posting information on the serious incident of Thursday (18th). I have passed on what you said but could you please contact me with further details.
Received a letter from the slcc refusing to investigate my complaint as its before they began work they claim so Law Society must look into it
Disgrace they are allowed to get away with this while feeding off the rest of us.Any advice appreciated
# Anonymous @ 10.57am
Could you contact me with further details please ... and I would recommend publishing anything you received back from the SLCC>
So applications in by tomorrow then ?
I wonder how many malcontents,scum and other four legged entrails have put in their resumes ?
God f*king help us all or failing that,you can help us Peter by continuing to expose these rotten crooks for the sham they are.SHAM SLCC should be renamed Scottish Legal Crooked Corrupt Commission
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