The Legal Ombudsman's Scheme Rules set out the framework for how we resolve complaints between authorised persons and complainants.
Following a consultation process in April 2022, there are a number of revisions to our existing Scheme Rules, with the changes applying from 1 April 2023.
The changes being made can be broken down into four areas as follows:
1 – A change to our time limits.
2 – Discretion to decline to issue a formal Ombudsman decision after investigator case decision if neither party raise any substantive objection to the findings of the case decision.
3 – Changes to Ombudsman discretion to dismiss or discontinue a complaint in certain circumstances.
4 – Minor drafting changes to update Scheme Rules including new dates and correcting previous typographical drafting errors.
This guide sets out what the changes are and how they apply, and what service providers need to do to prepare for the changes going live.
