Our approach to offers made at first tier When a consumer first brings a complaint to us, one of the first thing we do is to establish whether the service provider has made an offer Read More
Our approach to dealing with matters arising from the administration of an estate When we changed our Scheme Rules in April, one change that we made was to make it clear that we accept complaints Read More
Our approach to dealing with complaints about delay Along with poor communication, delays are the most common area of complaint that the Legal Ombudsman receives – last year, 21% of complaints that we investigated were either about Read More
Can the Legal Ombudsman look into complaints about negligence? A common enquiry I receive from service providers through our Technical Advice service is whether we can investigate complaints about negligence. Specifically, complaints in which the Read More
Our approach to unbundling The idea of “unbundling” legal services has been discussed in the sector for several years. In a nutshell, it’s where a service provider takes on only those aspects of work Read More
LeO’s perspective on vulnerability Legal services aren’t something people use every day, and can often be a consequence of an upsetting or stressful event – for example, a marriage breaking down, the death of Read More
An issue that all ombudsman schemes face is that it is difficult to forecast the level of demand on its service. During the pandemic most schemes saw an increase in demand for two reasons – people Read More
This month, I want to talk about our Technical Advice service. We are committed to being accessible to our stakeholders, so we decided to set up a dedicated email address technical.advice@legalombudsman.org.uk Read More
When we recently updated our Scheme Rules, we made an amendment to Section 2 – “Who can complain about what”, to include a new section which clarifies that a complaint can be brought to us where the Read More
I recently attended a conference at which I had an interesting conversation with a legal insurance broker, who told me that cyber insurance remains one of the most popular insurance policies with legal providers – a Read More
In my last column I set out details of the changes we are making to our Scheme Rules on 1st April 2023 with regards to the circumstances in which we can dismiss a complaint. This time, Read More
Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the first “Ombudsman’s Corner” of 2023. In the last column, I set out details of the changes we are making to our Scheme Rules on 1st April 2023 with Read More
In my last column, I explained how and why our Scheme Rules are changing on 1st April 2023, setting out the main changes – our time limits, our discretion to dismiss or discontinue complaints which are within Read More
Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules April 2023 Aside from a couple of minor amendments and additions made back in 2012, our Scheme Rules have not changed from the date that I started my career at the Legal Read More
Release of file as a remedy to resolve a complaint We are often asked by complainants to direct their service provider to release papers to them – either specific documents, or their entire file of papers. Read More
At the Legal Ombudsman, we have recently carried out some research to gain a better understanding of the quality and transparency of online complaints information on service providers’ websites. We wanted to understand how easy Read More
When I speak to service providers I often get asked to advise them on what their approach should be if, having received a complaint from a client, they find that things had gone wrong and Read More
I am delighted to be writing the first of what will be a monthly column in which I talk about complaints, complaints handling, what we are seeing at the Legal Ombudsman, the way that we Read More