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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I hope that that would never arise. We envisage that the OLC would say that the obvious solution to the question was for another lawyer to take on the case, and would instruct the lawyer who had failed the complainant to pay the costs of employing another lawyer. Ultimately, the difficulty with what the noble Lord proposes could be that the OLC takes responsibility for finding and hiring another lawyer on behalf of the complainant. Then what? What happens if that goes wrong? What happens if the complainant is dissatisfied or decides that he wants to pursue it? With whom does he pursue the fact that the OLC has brought in another lawyer? The circumstances with which we are trying to deal suggest that either the original lawyer must sort it out and do it properly—there is a whole range of things that he could do—or that another lawyer is engaged. Either the lawyer who has failed must be responsible for working on that or the complainant must be able to find another lawyer and the cost be found. We would change the nature of the OLC if it had to find another lawyer and tell the complainant, ““We have found you the right lawyer. Go and get on with it””. If it then goes wrong, to whom does the complainant complain about the OLC?