134.This section amends section 2 of the 2007 Act (receipt of complaints: preliminary steps).
135.Subsection (3)(a) requires the Commission to deal with—
	complaints (i) suggesting that professional services were inadequate where they were provided by a practitioner in connection with a matter instructed by a client or (ii) suggesting that legal services were inadequate where they were provided by a person other than a practitioner to the public for fee, gain or reward (these being types of “services complaint”),
	complaints suggesting that an authorised legal business is failing (or has failed) to comply with (i) the practice rules forming part of the rules for authorising and regulating the legal business made by the relevant profession organisation under (or for the purposes of) section 41(1)(a), or (ii) the terms of its authorisation by the relevant professional organisation (these being a type of “regulatory complaint”).
136.Subsection (3)(b) makes it clear that a complaint suggesting that legal services provided by a person other than a practitioner (to the public for fee, gain or reward) were inadequate may include a suggestion that the manner in which legal services were provided was inadequate. But if the Commission considers that the provision of legal services was merely incidental to the provision of non-legal services, the complaint is not to be treated as an eligible services complaint that may be considered by the Commission. It also provides that if a complaint is made about a practitioner who is an individual, the section allows the Commission to also, or instead, treat the complaint as if it were made against the practitioner’s firm or the practitioner who employs the practitioner against whom the complaint was made (“the employing practitioner”).
137.Subsection (3)(c) requires the Commission to determine whether complaints received by it constitute a conduct complaint, a services complaint, a regulatory complaint, or a combination of these categories of complaint. Where a complaint comprises more than one element, it also gives the Commission more flexibility about how to categorise each element. (Complaints were previously required to be divided into either conduct complaints or services complaints, and a single element of a complaint could not be categorised as both a conduct complaint and a services complaint).
138.Subsection (3)(d) ensures that a regulatory complaint may be made by any person. Subsection (3)(e) repeals provisions that are redundant as a result of the other changes.
Background Part 3 - Complaints Section 50 – Receipt of complaints: preliminary steps