The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has called on solicitors and firms to raise the bar in customer service in order to help and to protect vulnerable people.
In its Risk Outlook report, the SRA has advised that vulnerable people have a greater need to be protected from poor service, and need more support when it comes to getting redress if things go wrong.
The report indicates that vulnerable people are:
less likely to complain to the solicitor or firm;
less likely to complain to the Legal Ombudsman or the SRA; and
not always able to judge the quality of service until it is too late.
A vulnerable person could be someone with a disability; someone with limited ability to judge the quality of legal advice; someone in a stressful situation; or someone having experienced a trauma or personal tragedy.
Wills Jacobsen developed some time ago a vulnerable client policy to address these issues. As members of Solicitors for the Elderly the firm take its obligations to vulnerable clients seriously.
More information about vulnerable clients and the help they can receive can be found at Solicitors for the Elderly and more information about the SRA report can be found by following http://www.sra.org.uk/priorityrisks