The Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO) has responded to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) consultation on its business plans and budget for 2021/22.
ACSO agrees with the three priority areas identified by LeO for the upcoming financial year, saying they appear sensible and rightly focus on improving the ombudsman’s operational functions over the short and long term.
Concern was raised over the waiting times for an investigation into a complaint, not least as the number of people waiting for an investigation is expected to reach 5,000 by the end of the financial year. Rachel Cairnes, ACSO’s policy and public affairs adviser, said “the minimum six-month wait for an investigation to start is likely to frustrate consumers and may serve to undermine public confidence in legal services and their regulation. We note that LeO has experienced significant caseload backlogs for a number of years and this problem has been exacerbated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“More research is required as to the impact of long waiting times upon consumers, specifically whether there is evidence to suggest that waiting times lead to poor behaviour from legal service providers and/or impact upon service quality or competition in any way. We understand that wait times are a source of consumer dissatisfaction, however, the wider implications need to be understood fully.”
Cairnes continued, “other Ombudsman services, such as the Property Ombudsman, ensure complainants are fully informed of the progress of their complaints through regular updates. As such, we urge LeO to do the same. Regular communication and increased transparency help to alleviate any concerns a consumer may have that, owing to the long waiting time, their complaint is not being progressed. Furthermore, regular communication enables team members quickly to address any problems the consumer may be experiencing, such as the need for additional support”.
ACSO welcome LeO’s proposal to increase transparency and provide greater learning and insight for the legal sector. “By doing so, LeO will aid the promotion of best practice and the identification of common or systematic issues within the sector. Moreover, shared learning from complaints has the potential to reduce the overall number of complaints, thereby holding clear benefits to consumers through the provision of more efficient and effective legal services.
“In its 2020 review of the legal services sector, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated the need to address the lack of information available to consumers on complaints. For instance, LeO decisions are not published in full, despite how this information could provide consumers with signals about the quality of service and advice. The CMA goes on to state the importance of contextualising complaints data, in order to ensure the data is fair to providers and meaningful to consumers. This echoes the arguments made by ACSO in our response to the LeO discussion paper on the ways it can improve transparency and its work. We note that despite the discussion paper closing for comment on 31 January 2020, LeO is yet to publish a formal response to the paper, including the specific measures it intends to take to improve transparency and provide consumers with the data required to make better-informed decisions on which legal provider to use. Given LeO’s proposal to provide greater learning and insight, the outcome of the discussion paper would be both timely and welcome, not least as LeO has requested a 19 per cent budget increase for 2021/22”.
ACSO members can read the submission in full on the members’ area of the website.