The Unreasonable Complainant

LG Leader March 2019

A complainant can be defined as a “customer who is dissatisfied with the service delivery of the Council or the handling of a request for information.” An unreasonable complainant can therefore be described as “conduct by a current or former complainant which, because of its nature or frequency, raises substantial health, resource or equity issues for the parties to a complaint”. Handling conduct of this nature is challenging, time consuming, resource intensive and can often result in the complaint remaining unresolved.

This raises the question – does your council have a policy that manages such conduct? A policy that addresses unreasonable complainants and repeat requests for information can, at the very least, assist councils in allocating resources and being placed in a position to refuse to deal with certain types of complaints/requests in particular circumstances.  Such a policy will support any decision that is made regarding the treatment of such complainants by adopting procedures and parameters around the handling of such conduct. Some examples, are:

• what must be considered when determining what is a malicious, frivolous and/or unreasonable request for information?
• a procedure for the making of a complaint i.e. how a complaint is made?, the manner in which it is made, who a complaint is directed to?
• acknowledgement and timing of complaints;
• what occurs if an anonymous complaint is received?
• the options available to the council in imposing limitations upon communication to manage unreasonable complainant conduct. For example, requiring communication in writing, not replying to correspondence, dealing with unreasonable telephone communication; limiting contact to a nominated contact person;
• the inclusion of additional restriction that may be imposed if a person engages in repeat unreasonable complainant conduct;
• any steps to afford the complainant with procedural fairness before any limitations are imposed; and
• various warnings that can be given to a person who engages in unreasonable complainant conduct and the manner in which such warnings will be given.

If the above is addressed it can make the process of dealing with such a complainant easier and less challenging because there will be procedural steps in place supporting council’s actions to determine when a person is an unreasonable complainant.  This may involve making a decision to no longer engage or correspond with a particular complainant on subject matter. If such a decision is proposed it should not be made lightly and should not be made in the absence of guidance from a robust and practical policy.

If you would like to speak to Natasha about your policy or the development of one please contact her direct on 08 8113 7102 or njones@kelledyjones.com.au .