The body that advises the Legal Services Board on the interests of consumers has called for the publication of complaints made against law firms if they have been upheld.

Responding to an open consultation by the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) on whether its decisions should be published, the Legal Services Consumer Panel said it ‘strongly urged’ the Ombudsman to name lawyers in all cases that lead to a remedy.

Consumer Panel chair Dr Dianne Hayter (pictured) said: ‘Publishing complaints data about law firms lets the Legal Ombudsman go beyond helping the individual who complained, to enabling all consumers to choose legal services with their eyes open and giving a powerful incentive to all lawyers to maintain high standards. ‘Future users have a right to know if lawyers have a history of things going wrong. Making complaints data anonymous would put a brake on competition and unfairly protect the minority of poor lawyers who let consumers down.’

She added: ‘It is important to avoid unintended consequences but none of the objections put forward by the legal profession are convincing or evidence-based.’

Leo issued a discussion paper discussion paper on whether it should publish complaints in September.