SLCC releases guide for the public on family law

In response to this, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) has released a guide for consumers, aimed at helping them avoid running into difficulties with their family law solicitor.

The short guide, Family Law – a guide for consumers, has ten tips for consumers and follows on from a previous guide on buying and selling a home – the area of law which leads to the biggest number of complaints to the SLCC.

Launching the guide, the SLCC’s head of oversight, David Buchanan-Cook, said: “As with so many other types of legal services that consumers use, family law is often a distress purchase, brought on by stressful and emotionally difficult circumstances.

This guide aims to inform and empower consumers who find themselves in this situation.”

The guide comes as the SLCC hosted the first meeting of its new consumer panel, an independent advisory body convened to assist the SLCC in ensuring that the consumer viewpoint is heard and understood throughout the SLCC’s processes.

Mr Buchanan-Cook added: “We are an independent and impartial body. We know that the profession have a strong voice through the bodies that represent and regulate the profession – the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates. The Consumer Panel is about ensuring that consumers also have a strong voice speaking for them.”

Read the guide here: Family law – a guide for legal consumers.