Tag Results

My latest blog on how slowly decisions are made in our new regulatory regime and how figures about the number of complaints against financial institutions put the debate over publishing law firms’ complaints records into a stark context, while it is time to bid farewell for good to the Legal Complaints Service.

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has identified its first vexatious complainant, it emerged last night – but it is a lawyer, not a member of the public. It has also appointed former Financial Services Ombudsman Walter Merricks to adjudicate on complaints over LeO’s own service.

The Legal Ombudsman has criticised changes to the minimum terms and conditions for solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance that were approved by its parent Legal Services Board just last year.

Consumers believe that a lawyer who has provided a bad service should be “named and shamed”, research released today has found. However, there are signs that consumers are likely to use published information “in a way that may be at odds with the Legal Ombudsman’s reasons for publication”.

Here’s an interesting thought I’ve heard of late: in a few months’ time, will we need the Legal Services Board? The board’s three main purposes were to secure the independence of regulation from representation, set up the Legal Ombudsman, and deliver alternative business structures. The first two of these have been done, with the other due in less than eight months.