Dear Mr Ribsskog
I am writing further to your complaint of 23rd May 2007, which was submitted to Saffron Follows, Citizens Advice Complaints and Policy Officer. Ms Follows forwarded the complaint to the Bureau and Kristian Khan, General Unit Coordinator, investigated your complaint and provided a full response to you on 6th September 2007. I understand that you have now requested a review of your complaint and I have now had the opportunity to undertake this.
I understand that the main points of your complaint were as follows:
You feel that you should have been offered a new solicitor appointment after the duty solicitor cancelled the appointment that was scheduled for you on 05/04/07
That you were not informed of the name of the Duty Solicitor who was due to attend at the Bureau
That you should not have been advised to contact the Duty Solicitor by phone
That you should not have referred to a firm of solicitors who were not based in Liverpool
That you were given the wrong telephone number for the firm of solicitors
That the lights were switched off in the reception area, creating an unprofessional atmosphere and that Kristian Khan is lying to you when he stated in his response that he turned the lights back on when he began to speak to you.
That Eleanor Poole from Morecroft Solicitors should have informed you about Legal Aid
That you were not informed that the meeting with the solicitor was only to last for 30 minutes
That CAB should have explained to you about how the Legal Aid system works
Having reviewed your case and spoken to the members of staff concerned I have reached the following conclusions.
Mr Khan did not rebook a solicitor appointment because he followed normal Bureau procedure by providing you with the phone number of the solicitor who had failed to arrive so that you could speak to him directly. Mr Khan did this to ensure that you received advice from a solicitor with immediate effect and were not too inconvenienced by the solicitor failing to attend. Mr Khan did not feel that it would be appropriate for to you wait for the next solicitor appointment as Employment cases can have deadlines by which certain actions need to be taken. Had you simply been rebooked for the next appointment then there would be a risk that you may have missed legal deadlines and Mr Khan did not wish for you to suffer any prejudice. I am satisfied that Mr Khan acted correctly and do not uphold this element of your complaint.
It may be useful here to explain how the Duty Solicitor scheme works. The solicitors who come to the Bureau are from different firms of solicitors around the city and come to us on a voluntary basis. We do not employ these solicitors. We operate this scheme to try and increase community access to specialist legal advice by facilitating a free half hour session with a solicitor.
The CAB does not generally know the names of the solicitors who attend at the Bureau, only the name of the firm from which they are sent. That is why we were unable to provide you with the name of the solicitor and I do not uphold this aspect of your complaint.
The firm of solicitors who you were given the number of are based in Liverpool and Mr Khan, in his reply to you of 6th September provided you with their full address to illustrate this point.
Mr Khan has admitted to you in his reply of 6th September that he did accidentally provide you with the fax number of the firm of solicitors instead of the phone number and has apologised for this error. I would also like to offer my apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.
The lights were partially switched off in the Reception area as we were closed for lunch for clients who did not have an appointment. Mr Khan maintains that he did switch the lights back on when he began to speak to you. May I offer my apologies if you felt that this presented an unprofessional impression of the Bureau, this was not intended.
With regard to Eleanor Poole not informing you about Legal Aid, this is not something the CAB has responsibility for. The aim of our duty solicitor scheme is to facilitate a free, half hour interview with a solicitor. I have spoken to Reception staff who have informed that they do inform clients when booking duty solicitor appointments that the interview does last for 30 minutes and I have no reason to doubt that this did not occur on this occasion. If this was the case then please accept my apologies. If a client needs further advice beyond this free, half hour interview then any costs, fees
etc need to be discussed between the client and the solicitor. If the solicitor did not inform you of Legal Aid then this is not the fault of the CAB.
I trust that I have dealt with all aspects of your complaint, however if you do still remain dissatisfied you are entitled to ask for a further review to be conducted under the direction of the chief executive of the national association, Citizens Advice, the contact details being:
The Complaints Officer
Citizens Advice
Myddleton House
115 – 123 Pentonville Road
London
N1 9LZ
Yours sincerely
PATRICK KENT
CHAIR – TRUSTEE BOARD
LIVERPOOL CENTRAL CAB