From 1st April 2023 the Legal Ombudsman has revised their existing Scheme Rules, which set out the framework for how they resolve complaints.
The main changes relate to the following areas:
- A change to the time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
- Discretion to decline to issue a formal Ombudsman decision, if no substantive comments are provided in response to an investigator’s case decision
- Changes to Ombudsman discretion to dismiss or discontinue a complaint in certain circumstances.
A change to the time limits
Prior to 1st April, the time limit for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman was:
- no more than 6 years from the date of the act or omission being complained about, or no more than 3 years from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint, and
- within 6 months of the date of receiving a final written response about the complaint (from the firm/service provider to whom you submitted your complaint).
From 1st April, the time limit is now:
- no later than 1 year from the date of the act or omission being complained about, or no more than 1 year from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint, and
- within 6 months of the date of receiving a final written response about the complaint (from the firm/service provider to whom you submitted your complaint).
The level of discretion which the Legal Ombudsman will allow to accept ‘out of time’ complaints is changing. Previously the test was “exceptional circumstances”. Now the discretion is to accept complaints in circumstances where the Legal Ombudsman determines it to be fair and reasonable to do so.
Discretion to decline to issue a formal Ombudsman decision, if no substantive comments are provided in response to an investigator’s case decision
From 1st April 2023 the Legal Ombudsman has discretion to consider a complaint to have been resolved on the basis of an investigator’s case decision, if neither party provides a substantive reasons for disagreeing with that decision. If the response received to a case decision is one simply of disagreement, where no substantive reason is provided as to why the party disagrees, the matter will be referred to an Ombudsman who will have discretion to make the decision to close the complaint as having been resolved by way of the investigator’s findings. If those findings recommend that a remedy is payable, then the Legal Ombudsman would expect the service provider to honour that recommendation. If they fail to do so within a defined period of time, then the complainant could then request that the case be passed to an Ombudsman for a decision which can then be enforced through the Courts if necessary.
Changes to Ombudsman discretion to dismiss or discontinue a complaint in certain circumstances
The Scheme Rules allow the Ombudsman discretion to dismiss or discontinue a case where there are compelling reasons to do so. The previous Scheme Rules set out a number of circumstances where that would be the case. From 1st April 2023, the Scheme Rules have been amended to include further circumstances where the Ombudsman can dismiss. Full details are available on the Legal Ombudsman’s website: Home | Legal Ombudsman
If at any point you are unhappy with the service we provide to you, then please inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you. You can access our Complaints Handling Procedure here: Complaints Handling Procedure