Law Society of Scotland rules updated earlier this year require firms to maintain a complaint log, including learning outcomes from the complaint. This new tool is designed to support firms to identify those learning outcomes when a complaint arises, and to find and implement solutions to minimise the risk of similar issues occurring in future.

Vicky Crichton, the SLCC’s director of public policy said: “Reflecting on the likely causes of complaint in your business, and considering how to reduce them, should form a core part of a firm’s approach to risk management. Tackling those issues will benefit the firm, as well as its current and future clients.

“Reducing the common causes of complaints also reduces the costs of complaints going into the full statutory process. This work is even more important on the light of the financial challenges the sector faces as it responds positively to the impact of Covid-19.

“The complaint analysis tool is designed to help firms consider what went wrong, to analyse the underlying causes of the complaint, and to decide what could be put in place to prevent or reduce the risk of similar issues occurring in the future. We hope firms will find this a useful addition to our existing guidance.”

The tool will be sent to firms who receive an upheld decision from an SLCC determination committee. Although not mandatory, the SLCC hopes firms will take the opportunity of an upheld complaint to reflect on how the issues arose, and how they could have been avoided.