Legal Ombudsman

The controversial prospect of publishing law firms’ complaints records will be put firmly back on the agenda with a consultation by the Legal Ombudsman, Legal Futures can report.

The Legal Ombudsman has rejected suggestions from the Law Society that the new complaints-handling service will not prove any cheaper for solicitors, Legal Futures can reveal.

The boss of the Legal Complaints Service has expressed frustration and disappointment at the low number of her staff who have got jobs at the new Legal Ombudsman service, Legal Futures can reveal. This is despite the fact that it was the previous government’s expectation that around 80% of LCS staff would move over.

The Legal Services Board has set out its plans to recoup its running costs, and those of the Office for Legal Complaints, based on a per capita basis and of complaints against each part of the legal profession.

So farewell (almost), Zahida Manzoor. Her final annual report after more than seven years as Legal Services Ombudsman is understandably reflective ahead of the post’s abolition on 6 October when the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC)/Legal Ombudsman (no, we’re not sure which to call it either) opens for business. Ms Manzoor deserves a chance to bask in the glow of her achievements.

The performance of the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) will provide a solid foundation from which the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) can build, the Legal Services Ombudsman said today.

The heads of both the Legal Services Board (LSB) and Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) are in the list of those working at quangos who earn more than £150,000, which was released by the Cabinet Office today.

The Legal Ombudsman will open on 6 October 2010, it confirmed today. The board of the Legal Ombudsman has agreed to keep to its plans for opening, subject to the Parliamentary timetable. The announcement indicates confidence that the new service will survive scrutiny by the Cabinet committee examining the need for all pending regulations left by the previous government.

The Coalition government has scotched rumours that it is to scrap alternative business structures (ABSs), Legal Futures can confirm. We further understand that both ABSs and the Office for Legal Complaints are likely to get the green light from the Cabinet committee set up last week to review all upcoming regulation.

Complaints against conveyancers are on the rise, but complaints against personal injury lawyers have fallen dramatically, figures from the Legal Complaints Service have shown.

A new Cabinet committee is to review whether the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) and alternative business structures (ABSs) should be implemented, it emerged yesterday. The news comes as The Times speculated today that the new team at the Ministry of Justice might kick ABSs into the long grass, but investigations by Legal Futures indicate that there is no foundation for this.

Later this year, the Legal Ombudsman will take over the handling of complaints against all lawyers. But as chief ombudsman Adam Sampson explains to Legal Futures Editor Neil Rose, it is as much about helping lawyers as clients.

All lawyers will have to give clients clear information about how to complain, and their regulators will have to monitor that it is done, the Legal Services Board has announced.

There has been a sharp rise in the number of complaints against barristers this year, with solicitors increasingly complaining, Legal Futures can reveal. Complaints received by Dr Ann Barker, the bar’s Complaints Commissioner, were 38% higher in the first quarter of 2010 than in the same period last year.

The Law Society is offering staff at its Legal Complaints Service (LCS) financial incentives to join the new Legal Ombudsman service, Legal Futures can reveal. The Society has pledged a year’s worth of “bridging payments” to those who move over, which will go some of the way to making up the difference between their current salary and the lower wage the ombudsman is offering.