The Legal Ombudsman (often informally abbreviated to LeO or LEO) is an

ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

service that opened on 6 October 2010. It is a free service that investigates complaints about

lawyers A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as wel ...

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

. The Legal Ombudsman was set up as a result of the

Legal Services Act 2007 The Legal Services Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that seeks to liberalise and regulate the market for legal services in England and Wales, to encourage more competition and to provide a new route for consumer compl ...

and took over from the Legal Complaints Service and other legal complaint-handling bodies. The current Chief Ombudsman is Paul McFadden, who replaced Rebecca Marsh in January 2021, Marsh having left the post in the summer of 2020 after being in post since April 2019. The Legal Ombudsman is a member of the Ombudsman Association.

Governance and jurisdiction

Sections 114 and 115 of the

established the

Office for Legal Complaints The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) is the board of the Legal Ombudsman, the free service that investigates complaints about lawyers in England and Wales. The OLC was established by the Legal Services Act 2007. The Legal Services Board, a non-de ...

and stipulated that it must operate an ombudsman scheme. The OLC appointed the first chief ombudsman and acts as the Legal Ombudsman's board. The OLC is responsible to both the

Legal Services Board The Legal Services Board is an independent body responsible for overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, created through the Legal Services Act of 2007 ...

and the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. The current chair of the OLC is Elisabeth Davies. The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints made by members of the public (and

small business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have a small number of employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being ...

es, clubs and

charities A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a cha ...

) about the service they receive from lawyers working in England and Wales. The following types of lawyers fall within the Legal Ombudsman's jurisdiction: * costs lawyers *

legal executive Legal executives are a kind of trained legal professional in certain jurisdictions. They often specialise in a particular area of law. A legal executive usually receives both vocational training (a minimum of 3 years for those in England and Wale ...

s *

licensed conveyancer A licensed conveyancer is a specialist legal professional in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia or South Africa who has been trained to deal with all aspects of property law. Typically, their tasks might include: # Taking instructions fro ...

s * notaries public *

patent attorney A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing patent applications and o ...

s *

probate In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the e ...

practitioners * registered European lawyers *

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

s *

trademark attorney A trademark attorney (U.S. spelling) or trade mark attorney or agent (UK spelling) is a person who is qualified to act in matters involving trademark law and practice and provide legal advice on trade mark and design matters. In many countries, ...

s * claims management companies (between January 2015 and April 2019). The Legal Ombudsman's role is restricted to investigating issues around quality of service. Because the Legal Ombudsman is a lay organisation (section 122 (2) of the Legal Services Act does not allow a lawyer to be the Chief Ombudsman), generally, it cannot say whether legal advice is correct or not. The exception is if it appears that the advice is so unreasonable that no other lawyer in the same circumstances would have given it: this is the reasonable or common sense approach. Similarly, the Legal Ombudsman cannot make decisions on matters of

negligence Negligence ( Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate care expected to be exercised in similar circumstances. Within the scope of tort law, negligence pertains to harm caused by the violation of a duty of care through a neg ...

because negligence is a legal concept that must be proved in a court of law. However, it is possible that poor service, which the Legal Ombudsman can investigate, might overlap with evidence that a complainant might wish to use to argue that their lawyer has been negligent. Where there is an overlap, only the courts have the authority to decide what amounts to negligence. The Legal Ombudsman's rules allow it to decline to investigate cases that relate to legal advice or negligence if it thinks that they would be better dealt with by the courts or some other scheme. Any issues relating to the general conduct of a lawyer will be referred to the appropriate regulating body. For instance, where there is evidence to suggest a solicitor may have been guilty of misconduct, the Legal Ombudsman will refer the matter to the

Solicitors Regulation Authority The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is the regulatory body for solicitors in England and Wales. It is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of more than 125,000 solicitors and other authorised individuals at more than 11,00 ...

. Complainants normally have to complain to the lawyer first. Failing this there are two relevant time limits regarding taking a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman: It will accept complaints up to six years from the date of act/omission, or three years from when the complainant should have known about the complaint if later. However, this new limit will be introduced gradually so at the moment the problem must have happened on or after 6 October 2010.

Impartiality

Sections 122(3) and (8) of the Legal Services Act 2007 provide that the Chief Ombudsman must not be a lawyer. In addition, as an arms-length body the Legal Ombudsman is not affiliated to lawyers' representative bodies or their regulators. In this respect it differs from the Legal Complaints Service, one of its predecessors.

References

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External links

Official website
Legal organisations based in England and Wales Consumer protection in the United Kingdom Solicitors Organizations established in 2010 2010 establishments in the United Kingdom Legal regulators of the United Kingdom