This report shares data and insights about the complaints received and resolved by the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.
It highlights our key findings, as well as relevant case studies and resources. We encourage legal providers and consumer representatives to use the learning from what we’ve seen to ensure more complaints are resolved without us, and prevented from arising at all.
Read our Chief Ombudsman’s comments on this year’s report.
This year we’ve made a number of enhancements to our data. In particular, our outcome data now includes all cases we investigated, rather than only those resolved by an ombudsman final decision – giving a much more representative picture of the complaints we’re seeing and what we’re finding. The enhancements have been applied to all the data presented, including previous years’.
From 2022/23 we changed our process to enable the early resolution of complaints. We now resolve around half of complaints this way, which has changed the mix of complaints that require a full investigation. Data relating to the outcome of complaints doesn’t include complaints resolved by early resolution, where we don’t currently make a formal assessment about legal providers’ standards of service or complaints handling.
For these reasons, although conclusions about broad trends over time are possible, caution should be taken about making very detailed comparisons with previously-published data.
Data about the consumers who used LeO's service is published in the EDI section of our website.
Please contact us if you have any questions about our data or how we work.
Top three issues consumers complained about:
In this area, a common complaint we receive from consumers is that their legal provider’s delays meant their purchase or sale didn’t complete by an agreed date. We’re likely to uphold complaints where we find a legal provider has unreasonably failed to progress a transaction, such as by not responding to enquiries raised by the other side. We may uphold a complaint about communication where a legal provider hasn’t responded, or hasn’t responded quickly enough, to requests for updates.
Read our conveyancing case studies
In this area, many complaints relate to claims funded by conditional fee agreements, or ‘no win, no fee.’ A common complaint we receive from consumers is that their legal provider didn’t keep them updated on the progress of the claim, or delayed progressing matters to settlement. We may uphold complaints like this if we find evidence that the legal provider has caused delays by not progressing a claim in the way they should have – for example, by not sharing a medical report, or not chasing expert reports.
Read our personal injury case studies
This area of law includes both the drafting of wills and the handling of estates – and we can accept complaints both from lay executors and beneficiaries, although legal providers don’t always understand this. Many complaints centre on delays in the administration of estates, or the quality of the service providers’ communication. We tend to uphold complaints where there’s evidence that the provider hasn’t proactively progressed the administration – for example, not making a prompt application for probate, or not asking for the information needed to enable to prompt collection of estate assets.
Read our wills and probate case studies
This area of law includes issue relating to marriage, divorce and related financial aspects, as well as to children. Consumers often tell us they don’t agree with or accept the advice they’ve received from a legal provider, and this accounts for the biggest share of complaints. We’re likely to uphold complaints where there’s evidence the provider didn’t provide the right advice in the individual circumstances – for example, where they didn’t clearly advise that parties’ conduct isn’t a consideration in financial matters.
Read our family law case studies
We receive complaints in this area both from consumers who are suing a third party, and who are being sued themselves. It’s another area where advice features as the most complained-about aspect of the legal provider’s service – with consumers often telling us they don’t agree with the advice, or they got bad advice, including about the prospect of success, and the outcome didn’t go in their favour. We’re likely to uphold a complaint if we find the legal provider failed to take into account relevant information that led to them giving obviously incorrect advice.
Read our litigation case studies
In our “other” category, representing 20% of our casework, the largest areas of law were property disputes, criminal law, employment law, and immigration and asylum. We don’t currently report on these separately, but together they accounted for 70% of the “other” category (14% of all complaints we accepted overall).
Common complaints that we see in this area of law include residential boundary disputes and claims against builders who have worked on a property. Many consumers tell us they’re unhappy with how their legal provider has progressed the legal matter, and their communication about it. We’re likely to uphold complaints if there’s evidence of unreasonable delays on the provider’s part – for example, where they didn’t seek the input of an expert surveyor in a timely way, and this meant things didn’t move forward as they should have.
We are looking to expand our case studies to this area of law soon.
Many complaints in this area are brought to us by serving prisoners who have been through the judicial system and have been convicted and sentenced. These are often about the barristers who has represented the consumer in court; the advice and representation they provided, particularly around evidence, witnesses, and plea, is the most common complaint issue. We’re likely to uphold complaints where we find clear failings in the legal provider’s approach, such as a barrister not taking into account evidence provided by the consumer that could have made a difference to the outcome of the trial.
Read our criminal law case studies
In this area, we often hear from consumers who’ve taken action legal about unfair dismissal, constructive dismissal or discrimination at work. Many complaints centre on the advice a legal provider has or hasn’t given – including about the prospects of success, and whether a conditional fee agreement is possible – which the consumer believes has had a detrimental impact on their claim. We may uphold complaints if we find that the legal provider hasn’t taken into account all relevant factors when reaching a view on the prospects of success.
Read our employment law case studies
Outside the primary areas of law we report on, this is the area where we’re most likely to find poor service. Failings such as missing application deadlines can have a significant practical impact on the consumer, potentially affecting their immigration status and ability to work in the UK. This is a very procedural area of law, and the complaints we receive can be complex and technical. However, providing immigration advice isn’t a reserved area of law and it can be provided by non-lawyers. We’re likely to uphold complaints if we find a service provider unreasonably caused delays and missed deadlines despite having the information, and payment, they needed.
Read our immigration and asylum case studies
LeO’s case studies about different complaint issues and areas of law. These are based on real-life cases we’ve seen and highlight the concerns consumers brought to us, how we investigated, and how we put things right in a fair and reasonable way.
Read our case studies
LeO’s technical advice desk. It’s a free service for lawyers who have general questions about LeO’s role and approach, or queries about specific complaints they’re trying to resolve in house. We can offer informal, non-binding advice to help prevent complaints arising or needing to be escalated to us.
Contact the technical advice desk
Our signposting guidance. Not giving the right information at the right time about consumers’ right to complain to us is a regulatory and reputational issue, and a serious barrier to redress and access to justice. Make sure you know what needs to happen and use our model text to get information across clearly.
Read our signposting guidance
Good practice resources and factsheets. Under our new strategy, we’re currently working on updating the resources we offer – but they still provide a clear steer on our view of what good looks like in preventing and resolving complaints.
Read our good practice resources. Our Scheme Rules. These set out who, when and how we can help resolve complaints.
Read the Scheme Rules
