The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is proposing increasing its case fee from £400 to £600; in the first change to pricing since charges were first introduced in 2010. The Law Society of England and Wales have described proposals to increase the fees charged by the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) as “striking the right balance” in its response to the consultation on case fee structure.
The Legal Ombudsman introduced a fee of £400 for case handling which has remained unchanged since its introduction. An ‘inflationary increase’ from £400 to £600 per case will be implemented on 1st April 2016 subject to further feedback through the consultation, and final approval. All matters submitted before that date will be eligible for the £400 fee. A ‘review mechanism’ will also be introduced to avoid the same issue regarding unchanged fees for 15 years happening in the future.
In its consultation on changes to fee structure LeO said it had considered doubling the fee to £800, or introducing a tiered “polluter pays” structure where the worst offenders would be charged higher fees. Earlier this year the ombudsman service said it would be seeking a 10% increase in funding to improve its services and recruit more staff. It will also encourage firms to improve their own first-tier complaint handling after its own research showed half of the complaints investigated by LeO in 2023/24 involved evidence of poor service or mishandled initial complaints. In August LeO published enhanced guidance on remedies to support firms better deal with complaints.
The guidance sets out five questions to assess whether a remedy is appropriate.
- Resolve more complaints at tier one
- Adopt a fair and consistent process for evaluating and offering remedies
- Come to a remedy figure and reassure clients of the fairness of that figure
- Communicate the reasoning behind remedies clearly when offering them at tier one,
- Use resources that would otherwise spent on escalated complaints elsewhere in casework.
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said the decision to stick to a simple fee structure, alongside the reduced fee increase demonstrated a ‘responsiveness’ to previously raised concerns.
““We are pleased that LeO has reconsidered its earlier proposal and now seeks a more modest increase that aligns more closely with inflation. We recognise the importance of ensuring LeO is adequately resourced; however, it is essential that costs imposed on legal service providers are reasonable, proportionate, fair, and predictable.
The president added he hoped the fees would not hinder access to justice by discouraging firms from undertaking work in areas of high complaints; and said the structure review of fees would provide opportunity for stakeholders to ensure any changes remained ‘fair and manageable’ and based on performance.
