Legal Ombudsman

The Legal Ombudsman has brought in an experienced public services ombudsman and a senior civil servant to lead its management through the next phase of reform.

The Office for Legal Complaints, the governing body of the Legal Ombudsman, has renewed its call for it to be allowed to extend its reach to unregulated legal services providers.

The Legal Ombudsman has warned law firms against making holiday sickness claims without “verifying the version of events” obtained by claims management companies as complaints rise.

The Ministry of Justice is considering whether to create a register of unregulated providers of legal services and give their clients access to redress if things go wrong, it emerged yesterday.

The Legal Ombudsman is to press ahead with plans to publish its full decisions, as well as annual reviews of the most complained-about lawyers and firms, it has decided.

The Legal Ombudsman has warned that if its poor performance over the last few months continues, it could take more than a year to process even the simplest complaints.

The Legal Ombudsman is taking five months just to pass any new complaints to an investigator as it struggles to cope with the impact of Covid-19.

The waiting time for the Legal Ombudsman simply to start considering a complaint has nearly halved over the past year but it was still 90 days before the pandemic struck.

The coronavirus crisis will impede much-needed efforts to turn around the performance of the Legal Ombudsman, its new chair has warned in an interview with Legal Futures.

The Legal Ombudsman is set for a major leadership shake-up in the wake of its recent budget debacle and following the decision of the chief ombudsman to leave.

The Legal Ombudsman is exploring whether to use big data and machine learning technology to suggest outcomes  and make recommendations in resolving complaints about lawyers.

The Legal Ombudsman has hit crisis point again after it was forced to backtrack on its request for a 20% budget rise, with the Legal Services Board describing its performance as unacceptable.

MPs on the justice select committee have endorsed the appointment of Elisabeth Davies as chair of the Office for Legal Complaints, the board that oversees the Legal Ombudsman.

The presumptive new chair of the Office for Legal Complaints – the board of the Legal Ombudsman – has suggested that it should not have to wait for complaints before taking action.

The Legal Services Board has named the former chair of its consumer panel as its preferred candidate to chair the Office for Legal Complaints, the board of the Legal Ombudsman.