The legal ombudsman wants to slash the time allowed for clients to make complaints about solicitors - and be able to dismiss cases without any investigation.
The proposals, subject to consultation, are the first comprehensive redrawing of the rules since 2012, reflecting the new leadership team’s desire to reduce waiting times and clear the mounting backlog.
The ombudsman has already sought to amend the Legal Services Act to gain the freedom to contract out some of its workload to agency or temporary staff and this next stage focuses on changing rules about the complaints themselves.
The current rules allow people to bring a complaint within six years of an alleged mistake, or within three years of finding out about an issue. The ombudsman proposes both these limits should come down to one year for all new cases.
The ombudsman says that older cases are more challenging to investigate due to difficulties in gathering evidence, particularly where a firm has since closed. Based on cases brought in the past 12 months, reducing the time limit to one year would affect around 30% of complaints.
The ombudsman is also proposing to enable its staff to dismiss a complaint without the need to first accept that case for investigation, subject to specific criteria. Cases could also be dismissed mid-investigation if a reasonable revised offer is made by a law firm to settle.
A new rule would be introduced which would allow the ombudsman to dismiss a complaint where it would be disproportionate to start an investigation. A case study in the consultation cites a 500-page complaint to the service, which took an experienced investigator nearly 18 months to conclude and was deemed worthy of a £500 remedy.
The ombudsman would also be able to conclude that a final decision is not needed on a case if no substantive issues have been raised.
Elisabeth Davies, chair of the Office for Legal Complaints, said the proposals were not about 'closing doors' to people but about finding ways to resolve complaints in a proportionate and more efficient way. ‘The current scheme rules do not afford the flexibility to execute minimum formality in the complaints process and are in many ways preventing the legal ombudsman from providing the best possible service to its customers,’ said Davies.
The ombudsman faces an ongoing struggle to reduce a backlog of complaints and what it admits are ‘unacceptable’ waiting times. Despite a 13% budget increase last year, the pool of unopened cases increased by 9% to 5,677 – with the backlog itself bigger than the entire output of the organisation in 2020/21.
The consultation on changes to the scheme rules ends on 13 April.
- The Law Society's Risk and Compliance Annual Conference will take place on Friday 25 March, as a hybrid event online and at the Law Society, London. It will examine the current compliance issues that are affecting firms, and legal departments through a mix of plenary sessions and a choice of concurrent workshops that will help you achieve best practice in compliance.
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