What about using a message inspector ? Have you checked the IClientMessageInspector ?
It may look like this :
The message inspector
public class MessageInspector : IClientMessageInspector
{
...
#region IClientMessageInspector Members
public void AfterReceiveReply(ref System.ServiceModel.Channels.Message reply, object correlationState)
{
//rethrow your exception here, parsing the Soap message
if (reply.IsFault)
{
MessageBuffer buffer = reply.CreateBufferedCopy(Int32.MaxValue);
Message copy = buffer.CreateMessage();
reply = buffer.CreateMessage();
object faultDetail = //read soap detail here;
...
}
}
#endregion
...
}
The endpoint behavior
public class MessageInspectorBehavior : IEndpointBehavior
{
...
#region IEndpointBehavior Members
public void ApplyClientBehavior(ServiceEndpoint endpoint, System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ClientRuntime clientRuntime)
{
MessageInspector inspector = new MessageInspector();
clientRuntime.MessageInspectors.Add(inspector);
}
#endregion
...
}
http://weblogs.asp.net/paolopia/archive/2007/08/23/writing-a-wcf-message-inspector.aspx
I think a good practice is to use exceptions as faults too.