The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is set to undergo a transformation in 2025/26, due to a proposed £20 million budget – a significant 11.4% increase from the previous year.
The move is part of a new phase in LeO’s three-year strategy to tackle persistent demand, improve service delivery, and raise standards across the legal profession in England and Wales.
Despite having improved performance in recent years – resolving over 8,000 complaints in 2024/25 and reducing long waits – LeO faces consistently high demand, with over 10,000 new complaints expected again in 2025/26. According to its latest business plan and budget, the backlog of unallocated investigations remains a challenge, prompting a renewed focus on resourcing, innovation, and collaboration with the legal sector.
Key Developments for 2025/26:
- £20 million, up from £17.95 million in 2024/25.
- Investment in additional investigators to reduce the queue of unresolved cases by 33%.
- LeO will explore artificial intelligence to streamline case handling and internal processes.
- Website upgrades and better signposting to reduce ‘premature’ complaints and improve user experience.
A core element of the plan is to influence legal service providers to improve their own first-tier complaint handling. Nearly half of the complaints investigated by LeO in 2023/24 involved evidence of poor service or mishandled initial complaints. In response, LeO will work with regulators and professionals to roll out a model complaints procedure and offer tailored training and guidance.
LeO is also committing to greater transparency. While plans to publish full Ombudsman decisions were scaled back due to cost, it will instead publish 30–50 Public Interest Decisions and expand its library of case studies. Quarterly insights and trend reports will also help regulators and providers pre-empt issues and improve practices.
Though the current £400 case fee has remained unchanged since 2010, proposals to double it were met with mixed feedback. LeO now plans to consult further with stakeholders to determine a fair increase that balances inflation with the potential impact on smaller legal providers.
In its previous consultation, LeO proposed increasing the case fee from £400 to £800. It also floated the idea of a tiered structure, where fees would rise based on how many upheld complaints a service provider had within a given year. However, the £800 case fee proposal will be deferred for now, pending further consultation.
