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Legal Services Act 2007


THE LEGAL SERVICES OMBUDSMAN FOR ENGLAND AND WALES ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2010


“A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE”


The Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales, Zahida Manzoor CBE, in her 2009/10 Annual Report and Accounts, has reflected on her time as the Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales, her Office’s commitment to working with the legal professional bodies to improve their complaint-handling processes and the achievements that have been realised during those seven years.



The Ombudsman’s report reflects the improvements made by all the professional bodies in the satisfaction ratings of her investigations into their complaint handling and the significant reduction in levels of compensation that she has recommended.


She said: “I am happy to report that significant in-roads have been made in all the professional bodies’ complaint handling processes enabling a speedier and more consistent approach to decision making.”


The story is one of significant turnaround in performance in complaints handling by the Law Society in particular; with improved and clearer procedures, improved quality standards and a greater consistency in decision making.


The Ombudsman comments that the LCS (the largest complaint-handling body, receiving approximately 13,000 complaints per year) are now achieving:



  • Customer satisfaction averaging over 80% (in 2006 it was 52%)

  • 94.9% of files reviewed by the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner in April 2009 having a fair and reasonable outcome with no significant service failings (against a target of 90%)

  • 70% of files being closed within 3 months of receipt, 86% within 6 months and almost 100% closed within 12 months (with only exceptional files going over the 12 month time frame - in 2005/06 only 52% were closed with 3 months and in 2005 the LCS had over 1,200 cases more than 12 months old)


In relation to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) the Ombudsman states: “I welcomed the SRA’s commitment to address some long-standing issues, by overhauling their decision-making processes, publishing their criteria, starting equality impact assessments, setting up a diversity working group, commissioning research and undertaking staff training.”


The Bar Standards Board (BSB) are congratulated on their consistently high satisfaction rating and the introduction of several initiatives to improve performance. In 2006 the BSB appointed a Complaints Commissioner who undertook a strategic review of complaints and disciplinary processes within his office. The Ombudsman reports that during 2008/9 the BSB had commenced implementing nearly all of the 65 improvements to the system recommended by the review. She also comments on the BSB commitment to Chambers in-house complaint handling and the promotion of diversity and equality throughout the Bar and within their own organisation.


The Ombudsman had no significant issues in relation to the other professional bodies for which she has oversight.


The Ombudsman reports on how her Office has continued to deliver improvements in dealing with cases: the average time falling from 5.6 months in 2002/03 to 2.8 months in 2009/10, significantly exceeding the Office’s Government target of completing 90% of investigations within 6 months; whilst at the same time reducing expenditure from £1,922,923 in 2005/06 to £1,539,221 in 2009/10. These figures include Ministry of Justice overhead costs.


Of particular note is the work undertaken by the Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman (OLSO) in helping many former miners, or their representatives, to successfully recover monies wrongly deducted by some solicitors from compensation awards. In her report the Ombudsman states: “These cases have raised some of the most important service and conduct issues in the history of legal service complaints handling. The work of my Office undertaken with the Law Society and the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) has helped to ensure that there is greater transparency and clarity to enable miners to put their cases forward.”


She highlights the work undertaken by OLSO in the developments and monitoring of its own quality assurance, service standards, benchmarking against other organisations, and consumer feedback. Of particular note is the success that has been achieved in the defence of applications for Judicial Review and other challenges.


The Ombudsman comments: “I came to the post of Ombudsman in the full knowledge that there were likely to be major changes in the legal services landscape over the coming years, changes that would affect service delivery, competition, regulation and complaints handling. I was not going to be disappointed.”


The Legal Services Act 2007 created two new organisations: the Legal Services Board (LSB) and the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC). The LSB has the oversight of the approved regulators who have responsibility for the regulation of the professional conduct of legal professionals. The LSB also has the responsibility for the new complaints-handling body: the OLC. The LSB and the OLC were formally constituted on 1 January 2009 and 1 July respectively. The OLC Chair, Elizabeth France, was appointed with effect from 1 November 2008 and the OLC Chief Ombudsman, Adam Sampson, formally took up position on 1 July 2009. It is expected that the OLC will take its first complaints from October 2010.


The Ombudsman comments: “I welcome the Ministry of Justice’s commitment to put in place arrangements which ensure that neither consumers nor lawyers suffer any detriment during the transition from the old to the new complaints-handling system. To this end I supported the proposal that the OLC was up and running as soon as possible and that the work of the existing complaint-handling bodies was brought to an end as quickly as practicable.”


In particular, and as I stated in my final Annual Report as Legal Services Complaints Commissioner dated February 2010, Past/Present/Future, I hope that the levels of performance now being achieved by the Law Society’s Legal Complaints Service (LCS) will provide a solid foundation and baseline from which the OLC will build.


The Ombudsman takes the opportunity to thank all the organisations and individuals who have contributed to her Office’s successful achievements. Above all she pays tribute to her staff for their dedication to the work of her Office and particularly during the transition, despite the loss of staff to other organisations, their continued commitment to providing a high standard of service in complaint handling.