MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
News Release (072/08) issued by The Government News Network on 1
July 2008
Published on
behalf of the Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman
Legal Services Ombudsman Annual Report - 1 July 2008
The Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales, Zahida
Manzoor CBE, in her Annual Report and Accounts, has welcomed the
Legal Services Act (2007). When brought into force, the Legal
Services Act will create two new bodies, the Legal Services Board
(LSB) and the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC).
The OLC will take over the handling of consumer complaints from
the legal professional bodies. It is a testament to the work of
the Ombudsman's Office that the OLC will be an ombudsman
scheme. The Ombudsman commented:
"I look forward to the LSB and OLC becoming the guardians of
fairness, transparency and impartiality for both the consumer and
legal practitioner".
The Ombudsman reported that in 2007/2008 her Office had again
performed to a high standard. The Ombudsman's Office exceeded
the Government's target of investigating 90% of cases
referred to it within 6 months. In fact 91% of its investigations
took 4 months to complete and 100% of its investigations were
concluded within 6 months.
In 2007/2008 complaints about the Law Society's
complaint-handling bodies, the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) and
the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), made up 91% of the
Ombudsman's workload. The Ombudsman was satisfied with the
handling of 68% of the LCS's investigations that consumers
referred to her. The Ombudsman was critical of the overall
performance of the LCS, and in particular poor decision-making in
individual cases.
However, she was pleased to note that LCS has continued to reduce
the time they take to deal with the complaints they receive. The
Ombudsman was satisfied with the handling of 80% of the SRA's
investigations and 80% of the Bar Standards Board investigations
that consumers referred to her. The Ombudsman also investigated a
small number of complaints regarding the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.
It is envisaged that the OLC will be fully operational in
2010/2011. The Ombudsman will continue to work closely with all
stakeholders to ensure a seamless transition from the current to
the new ombudsman scheme.
Notes to Editors:
1. The Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman completed 1,864
investigations into complaints between 1 April 2007 and 31 March
2008 and 1,803 new cases were accepted for investigation during
that time. The average turnaround time for investigation of
complaints by the Ombudsman, from receipt of the professional
body's file, was 2.9 months.
2. The Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales is
independent of both the Government and legal profession. The
Ombudsman provides an independent check on the complaint-handling
activities of the Law Society (the LCS and SRA), the General
Council of the Bar (the Bar Standards Board), the Institute of
Legal Executives, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the
Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and the Institute of
Trademark Attorneys. The Ombudsman is Ms Zahida Manzoor CBE.
3. Copies of the Annual Report and Accounts of the Legal Services
Ombudsman for England and Wales can be found at http://www.olso.org
http://www.justice.gov.uk