In its first complaints report for 2024 and ninth overall, the regulator said it received 637 complaints and closed 796 complaints in the six-month period from 2 September 2023 to 1 March 2024.

Overall, legal practitioners were directed by the LSRA to pay a total of €45,111 in compensation to their clients in the reporting period.

Of the 637 complaints received, a total of 607 related to solicitors and 30 related to barristers, which the LSRA said reflects the higher number of solicitors and their greater level of contact with consumers. Multiple complaints may be brought against an individual legal practitioner.

Most (60 per cent) were about alleged misconduct, followed by 20 per cent relating to legal services of an inadequate standard, two per cent concerning overcharging and the remaining 18 per cent being two or more of these categories.

Most of the complaints closed over the six-month period (52 per cent) were ruled inadmissible. A sixth were resolved with the assistance of the LSRA, including 19 resolved informally with the help of the LSRA’s trained mediators.

A total of 69 complaints (nine per cent) were upheld while 72 (nine per cent) were not upheld. Seven complaints of alleged misconduct were referred by the LSRA’s complaints committee to the separate Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.

The report details the LSRA’s High Court enforcement activities against solicitors who did not comply with its directions or determinations in complaints made against them. During the six-month period covered in the report, these include:

• a total of 15 pre-action letters were issued to legal practitioners seeking their compliance with LSRA directions or determinations within a set time period, failing which High Court proceedings would issue;
• three enforcement proceedings were issued seeking orders from the High Court directing compliance by legal practitioners with LSRA directions and determinations;
• six enforcement proceedings against legal practitioners came before the High Court. Of these, four matters concluded within the reporting period with the legal practitioners complying with the LSRA’s directions or determinations;
• separately, during the reporting period, an LSRA application came before the High Court seeking leave to issue an order of attachment or committal of a legal practitioner for failure to comply with an earlier enforcement order. Following the compliance of the legal practitioner, this matter was struck out with no order.

LSRA chief executive Dr Brian Doherty said: “The LSRA has repeatedly had cause to initiate High Court enforcement proceedings against legal practitioners who have not complied with its directions or determinations in complaints. Today’s report highlights once again the small number of instances where a High Court enforcement order has been granted and legal practitioners have still not complied.

“In these instances, the LSRA has had to resort to applying to the High Court for leave to issue orders of attachment or committal, which in effect puts legal practitioners at risk of being put in prison unless they comply with the High Court.

“These court applications and the resulting cost would not be necessary if the legal practitioners concerned would just comply with the directions or determinations made by the LSRA in the first place. No benefit is gained by a legal practitioner through not complying, and by not doing so they are simply putting the LSRA to further effort and expense, and for the complainant they are adding to the mounting frustration.”