LeO warned that complaints data for the 12 months up to the end of March 2024, published last week, shows no improvement in lawyers’ standards of customer service and complaints handling—with areas of failure not changing over time.
In total, LeO took on 6,652 complaints from people unhappy with the service they’d received from a legal provider, and resolved 7,918 complaints. One third of these related to residential conveyancing, with the next biggest areas being personal injury and wills and probate.
Overall, LeO found legal providers’ standard of service hadn’t been good enough in 69% of the cases it investigated. In residential conveyancing, personal injury, and wills and probate, there was evidence of poor service in three-quarters of cases.
Poor communication accounted for one in four of all complaints upheld, while one sixth were about legal providers’ delay and failure to progress legal matters.
Moreover, LeO found that lawyers’ in-house complaints handling hadn’t been good enough in nearly half (46%) of the complaints it investigated.
Chief ombudsman Paul McFadden said: ‘It’s good news that we’re able to sort out half of all complaints through early resolution. If something’s gone wrong, and a lawyer has offered to put things right fairly, we can explain that to their client.
‘But the fact is many of these complaints could have been prevented or resolved without us. And where we need to investigate in more depth, our data doesn’t paint a positive picture. It’s also disappointing we’re not seeing change or improvement in the types of issues consumers are raising.
‘Lawyers should welcome feedback from clients—including, and perhaps especially, about what’s not gone well. It’s clear a cultural shift is needed in lawyers’ approach to complaints – they’re opportunities to learn and do things better.’
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