Legal Ombudsman

The Bar Council has launched an outspoken attack on a planned 20% rise in the budget of the Legal Ombudsman. The Law Society also strongly opposed the move.

The Law Society and Bar Council have strongly attacked plans by the Legal Ombudsman to extend its publication of information about complaints, arguing that it would not help consumers.

The Legal Ombudsman is seeking to increase its budget by 20% in the next financial year to “radically” improve the time it takes to deal with complaints and “eliminate all unnecessary waiting time”.

The Legal Ombudsman has ditched plans to introduce mediation as another route to settling dispute between lawyers and their clients after a trial found limited interest.

The Legal Services Board is looking for a person with experience of “turn-around situations” to become the new chair of the Office of Legal Complaints, the board which oversees the Legal Ombudsman.

The Legal Ombudsman could start publishing its full decisions, as well as annual reviews of the most complained-about lawyers and firms, to improve the quality of information it makes available.

There has been a sharp rise in the number of complaints made about the Legal Ombudsman, its service complaint adjudicator has reported – and it is not clear why.

The Legal Ombudsman is running a ‘proof of concept’ pilot as it decides whether to introduce formal mediation as another route to settling dispute between lawyers and their clients.

A barrister who complied with an order from the Legal Ombudsman to pay compensation to a client only two hours before appearing at a Bar disciplinary tribunal has been fined £2,000.

The Legal Ombudsman was more likely to make a finding of poor service against a lawyer than not in 2018/19, reversing the trend of previous years, its annual report has shown.