LSB backs cut in time limit for complaints to Legal Ombudsman

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has backed a significant cut in the time limit for complaining to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) from six years to only one year.

The LSB also agreed that complaints should be dismissed where there has been no “significant loss” or where there has been “undue delay” in complaining.

The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC), LeO’s governing body, consulted on a series of changes to its scheme rules earlier this year, with a view to providing the flexibility to resolve cases more quickly.

These also included having discretion to dismiss or discontinue a complaint if it considered it would not be a proportionate use of the ombudsman’s time to investigate.

Further, while currently any party unhappy with the findings of an investigation could ask for an ombudsman to make a final determination, in future this would be limited to where the disagreement was either based on new facts or evidence which may have a bearing on the investigator’s findings, or it would be fair and reasonable to issue a determination.

Approving the changes in July, the LSB said the OLC aimed to “reduce the wait time and improve the experience of consumers seeking redress” but acknowledged the change could be detrimental to some consumers, a concern also raised by the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

LeO would be able to extend the time limits where it would be “fair and reasonable” to do so, rather than just in “exceptional circumstances”.

There would also be a discretion to consider a complaint from someone who had not suffered significant loss, distress or inconvenience.

The LSB said it was “satisfied that the OLC has considered properly how it will mitigate adverse impacts on consumers through the appropriate use of discretion, which we expect to be applied consistently”.

The oversight regulator said: “We expect the change to drive the behaviour of complainants to complain earlier, rather than to significantly reduce the case load of the Legal Ombudsman. We will closely monitor information the OLC shares with us on the impact of this change.”

On the ‘significance’ test, the LSB said “a number of” other ombudsman schemes “specifically state that they reserved the right to dismiss cases if they were not satisfied or persuaded that the customer had suffered a significant impact/detriment”.

It added: “We expect the OLC to be transparent in its publications on the data gathered through its tracking and monitoring work and would expect the OLC to set out a clear rationale for the timescale for its comprehensive review of all the proposed changes.”