Legal Ombudsman 2023/24 annual complaints data and insight

Cultural shift is needed in lawyers’ approach to complaints 

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has today published information about the complaints it received and resolved between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

LeO looks into complaints from people unhappy with the service they’ve received from legal providers. As an independent, impartial organisation set up by law, its role is to ensure complaints are resolved fairly.  It can help with disputes about most legal services, including conveyancing, wills and probate, litigation, personal injury and family law, including divorce.

The types of law LeO sees most complaints about broadly reflects the most common reasons for using legal services. For example, LeO sees more complaints involving moving house than going to court. 

However, not only are high numbers of people turning to LeO with concerns about legal services, the insights from the complaints LeO sees show that lawyers’ standards of customer service and complaints handling aren’t improving – with areas of failing not changing over time.

The data shows that:

• LeO took on 6,652 complaints from people unhappy with the service they’d received from a legal provider, and resolved 7,918 complaints.  
• A third of all the complaints LeO accepted related to residential conveyancing, with the next biggest areas being personal injury and wills and probate.
• Overall, LeO found legal providers’ standard of service hadn’t been good enough in 69% of the cases it investigated. In residential conveyancing, personal injury, and wills and probate, there was evidence of poor service in three-quarters of cases.
• Of all the complaints LeO upheld, the biggest share – one in four – were about poor communication, and one in six were about legal providers’ delay and failure to progress legal matters.
• LeO found that lawyers’ in-house complaints handling hadn’t been good enough in 46% of the complaints it investigated.

LeO is urging lawyers and their regulators to see complaints as opportunities improve, highlighting the key elements of good service and complaints handling that apply across the profession. 

Chief Ombudsman, Paul McFadden, said:

“It’s good news that we’re able to sort out half of all complaints through early resolution. If something’s gone wrong, and a lawyer has offered to put things right fairly, we can explain that to their client. If they haven’t, we can quickly help the two sides find a way forward.

But the fact is many of these complaints could have been prevented or resolved without us. And where we need to investigate in more depth, our data doesn’t paint a positive picture. It’s also disappointing we’re not seeing change or improvement in the types of issues consumers are raising.

Lawyers should welcome feedback from clients – including, and perhaps especially, about what’s not gone well. It’s clear a cultural shift is needed in lawyers’ approach to complaints – they’re opportunities to learn and do things better. 

The law might be complex, but the principles of good service and complaints handling aren’t. As an independent Ombudsman, we’re here to support legal providers – and to inform the work of legal regulators, who have the power to set standards and enforce improvements – by sharing our insight into how standards of service and complaints handling can improve.”  

Notes

• The Legal Ombudsman’s latest data covers the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. It is published in full on LeO’s website.
• The Legal Ombudsman scheme was established by the Office for Legal Complaints under the terms of the Legal Services Act 2007. The Act also established the Legal Services Board to oversee the regulation of the legal profession in England and Wales. Both the OLC and the LSB are arm’s-length bodies of the Ministry of Justice. LeO’s work supports and aligns with the regulatory objectives.
• The Chief Ombudsman has written to the Chief Executives of the largest legal regulators with more detail on complaints about their regulated providers, underlining LeO’s commitment to work together with regulators to create a positive culture around complaints and drive higher standards.
• The Office for Legal Complaints’ 2024-27 strategy for the Legal Ombudsman sets out an ambition that its independent voice and experience lead to improvements in legal services. As part of this, it has set out plans to help the sector achieve a step-change in lawyers’ in-house (“first tier”) complaints handling, including supporting the implementation of the Legal Services Board’s revised framework in this area.

Contact

If you have questions about LeO’s data or LeO’s work, please contact us here.