Frequently asked questions

We investigate complaints about the service a client received from a regulated legal service provider. For example, they might be unhappy about the service they received for a personal injury claim, when they bought a house or when they tried to sort out a family issue.

For us to investigate a complaint, the service provider must be regulated. Examples of service providers we can investigate are:

• Solicitors
• Barristers
• Licensed conveyancers
• Costs lawyers
• Legal executives
• Notaries

No, we provide an impartial service to all our customers – both consumers and service providers alike. We don't take sides. We don't make any assumptions about who is right or wrong in any particular case. Our job is to look at all the relevant facts in each case and, where we find there is a problem, to help everyone involved resolve things informally if at all possible.

We provide information to many different organisations, such as the various regulators of the service providers and consumer groups. We aim to help service providers to improve their service levels and complaint handling, as well as making it easier for people to raise their complaints to their service provider.

Yes, as a legal service provider, you have a responsibility to tell your clients how they can complain if they are dissatisfied with the service they receive. This includes telling your clients about your complaints handling process and also telling them about the Legal Ombudsman, how they can contact us and our time limits. Your requirement to do this is set out in your Code of Conduct.

You should tell us at the earliest opportunity if you believe that we should not investigate a complaint, or any part of a complaint. Under our Scheme Rules, there are three specific grounds on which you can dispute our decision to investigate a complaint. These are that a complaint:

• is not covered under Chapter Two of our Scheme Rules
• is out of time under Chapter Four; and
• should be dismissed under paragraph 5.7.

If you believe any of these three grounds apply, you should inform us and explain your reasons why. In providing your reasons, you can supply any evidence that supports your view. Once we receive your reasons, we will notify the complainant and ask them to provide their comments, then refer the matter to an Ombudsman. An Ombudsman will review your reasons and make a decision about whether an investigation will continue.

See our Scheme Rules for details.

If there is no agreed outcome the investigator will write a report that sets out a brief background to the complaint. If they conclude that a poor service has been provided, the investigator will make a proposal for putting things right: this is their case decision. Both parties have a chance to tell us what they think about the decision.

• If both parties agree with the case decision then the complaint is resolved;
• If anyone disagrees but does not provide new evidence to support their reasons for disagreeing or new reasons why they believe the investigator's views are inaccurate, then the case will be forwarded to an ombudsman to consider whether it would be appropriate to make a final decision. Where no ombudsman’s decision is made the case will be closed as resolved by the investigator's case decision.
• If anyone disagrees and provides either new evidence to support their reasons for disagreeing or provides reasons why they believe the case decision is inaccurate, then the case will be forwarded to an ombudsman for a final decision.
• If nobody responds to the case decision, then we will treat the complaint as resolved by the investigator's case decision.

The Legal Services Act 2007 sets out specific duties for the Legal Ombudsman to share information with the front-line legal regulators. We share general information about trends in complaints, similar to that which we publish on our website, as well as specific information about individual cases where there may be potential issues of misconduct.

We have an agreed Memoranda of Understanding in place with each of the regulators which set out how we work with them and what information we share. You can read them here. We also share certain information with the Legal Services Board (LSB) in its role as oversight regulator.

The Act also sets out what we can – and can’t – share with the LSB. We do not make conduct referrals to the LSB and we do not share with them any detail about individual cases. We also have a Memorandum of Understanding in place with them which outlines how we work together.

The Legal Ombudsman has commissioned DJS Research, an independent market research company, to conduct research with complainants and service providers. You may receive contact from DJS via email or a telephone call. Please be assured that your answers will be treated in the strictest confidence, and your feedback will go towards improving the service that the Legal Ombudsman provides.

We get most of our funding from the annual fee that you pay to your regulator.

When cases are accepted for investigation, we will charge you a case fee. Where the requirements of both 6.2a and 6.2b of our Scheme Rules have been met, the case fee may be waived.

For complaints referred to the Legal Ombudsman before 1 April 2023, your client needed to have given you an opportunity to deal with their complaint under your own complaints handling process. As per our current rules, you would have had a period of eight weeks to respond to the complaint. If you hadn't responded within eight weeks, we may have applied discretion to accept the complaint.

It is really important that you told your client to bring their complaint to us no longer than six months after the date of your final response, and within six years of when the problem complained about happened. If the problem happened more than six years ago, the complaint should have been referred to us within three years of your client becoming aware of the problem. We have strict time limits and if the complainant failed to meet these, it is unlikely that we would be able to investigate their complaint as we would only be able to investigate complaints which fall outside our time limits in exceptional circumstances as outlined in our April 2019 Scheme Rules, section 4.7.

Please see case studies regarding our six year and three year rules.

For cases referred to the Legal Ombudsman before 1 April 2023, if there is no agreed outcome the investigator will write a report that sets out a brief background to the complaint. If they conclude that a poor service has been provided, the investigator will make a proposal for putting things right: this is their case decision. Both parties have a chance to tell us what they think about the decision.

• If both parties agree with the case decision, then the complaint is resolved;
• If anyone disagrees then the case will be forwarded to an ombudsman;
• If nobody responds to the case decision, then we will treat the complaint as resolved.