Legal Ombudsman

Thousands of law firms are set to contribute £1.4m to the Legal Ombudsman after the government confirmed that they will no longer be eligible for two ‘free’ complaints every year. Meanwhile, LeO has not ruled out entertaining complaints by third parties, such as against the opposing party’s lawyer.

The Legal Ombudsman will not allow third parties to bring complaints against lawyers for the time being, Legal Futures has learned. However, it will in future accept complaints from prospective clients, while the limit for compensation will rise from £30,000 to £50,000

Regulators need to take urgent action to improve the way lawyers handle complaints after a “hard-hitting” new report highlighted multiple failings. However, although clients are often scared to complain, a positive experience when they do can actually make them likely to recommend the provider.

The problems claims management companies cause consumers will not be solved by giving the Legal Ombudsman jurisdiction over them – and may even be exacerbated, the Law Society has warned.

The names of 772 law firms which have been the subject of a formal decision by the Legal Ombudsman were published today – but an analysis by this website shows the ombudsman was happy with the law firm’s actions in more than half of the cases made public.

Claims management companies (CMCs) face the prospect of having to provide financial compensation to unhappy customers after the government announced today that they are to come within the remit of the Legal Ombudsman.

The publication of complaints data will be “imperfect”, the Chief Legal Ombudsman has admitted, but it is better than publishing nothing at all and is emphatically not about naming and shaming lawyers.

Hundreds of law firms have been sent details of the complaints information that the Legal Ombudsman is set to publish about them, Legal Futures has learned. However, it is still not clear when it will actually be published, after the July target was missed.

The changing legal market brings with it “more potential for confusion” among consumers, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly acknowledged last week, making the role of the Legal Ombudsman even more important in future.

The Chief Legal Ombudsman today warned of the risk of a payment protection insurance-type scandal engulfing the legal profession after collecting evidence of clients being sold complex and confusing legal products that they often struggled to understand.

The Legal Services Board and Office for Legal Complaints were today given a clean bill of health by the government, although it acknowledged that in the long term transforming the LSB into a ‘super regulator’ is an option.

The Legal Ombudsman is going too far in proposing to allow prospective clients and third parties to complain about lawyers, the Law Society has claimed. Chancery Lane found support from the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

The current limit of compensation that the Legal Ombudsman can award complainants should increase five-fold to £150,000, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has recommended. It also called for abolition of the two ‘free’ complaints every firm/lawyer is allowed each year without incurring a case fee.

Non-clients should have a general right to complain about lawyers – such as parties affected by delays in the conveyancing process and beneficiaries of a defective will – the Legal Services Consumer Panel said today.

There are signs that lawyers are getting better at handling complaints but also still failing to signpost their clients to the Legal Ombudsman, the chief ombudsman has said. Both could help explain why complaint volumes are lower than had been planned for.