Legal Ombudsman
Conveyancers overtake family lawyers in complaints league table
Conveyancers have usurped family lawyers as the main cause of complaints to the Legal Ombudsman, its annual report has revealed. But it also urged lawyers to think twice before pushing for formal decisions rather than accepting informal resolutions to complaints.
LeO recruits team of 30 to tackle claims management complaints
The Legal Ombudsman has recruited a team of 30 to deal with the thousands of complaints about claims management companies it will receive from today, it has emerged.
LeO: law firms should issue two retainers to consumer credit clients
Law firms should issue two separate retainers to clients where they are provided with consumer credit as well as purely legal services, the Legal Ombudsman has suggested.
LeO opens door to investigating “tightly defined” third-party complaints
There is scope for the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) to offer redress to third parties, as long as the complaints involved could be “clearly and tightly defined”, a report by a LeO working party has found.
‘Named and shamed’ barrister hits back at “misleading” ombudsman
The first lawyer to be ‘named and shamed’ by the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) for a series of complaints has argued that he is only “trying to adapt to new market forces”.
Olympic lottery boss takes over at Legal Ombudsman
Ian Brack, formerly chief executive and chief accounting officer of the Olympic Lottery Distributor, has been appointed interim chief executive of the Legal Ombudsman in succession to Adam Sampson after his resignation last month.
LeO names immigration barrister in first ‘public interest’ publication
The Legal Ombudsman has exercised for the first time its power under the Legal Services Act to name “in the public interest” a lawyer responsible for a series of complaints.
Exclusive: Chief Legal Ombudsman resigns in accounts dispute
The Chief Legal Ombudsman, Adam Sampson, has resigned from his role after a controversy about travel expenses meant his organisation’s accounts are likely to be qualified by the National Audit Office.
LeO can hold successor firms to account for inherited complaints, High Court rules
The High Court has ruled that a law firm cannot escape responsibility for handling complaints relating to a sole practice with which it merged. It said that as Kerman & Co had enjoyed the benefit and goodwill of the deal, it also had to accept the burden.
Big CMCs face £40,000 hit as government names day for new complaints regime
The Legal Ombudsman is set to start receiving complaints about claims management complaints from 28 January 2015 – some two and a half years after the switch from the Claims Management Regulator was first mooted by the government.
Blog
Change in regulator shouldn’t make AML less of a priority
While SRA fines for AML have been climbing, many in the profession aren’t confident they will get any relief from the FCA, a body used to dealing with a highly regulated industry.
There are 17 million wills waiting to be written
The main reason cited by people who do not have a will was a lack of awareness as to how to arrange one. As a professional community, we seem to be failing to get our message across.
The case for a single legal services regulator: why the current system is failing
From catastrophic firm collapses to endemic compliance failures, the evidence is mounting that the current multi-regulator model is fundamentally broken.
