Recent years have seen a focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Legal Ombudsman Service (LeO), which investigates complaints between consumers and legal services providers. It faces significant challenges, including a sizeable backlog of complaints.
Consumer waiting times are also significant, with an investigation into a complaint currently standing at a minimum of six months. Moreover, LeO had a unit cost (the total cost of the ombudsman scheme divided by the total number of cases resolved during the year) of £1,926 in 2019/20, an increase of 8 per cent from 2018/19. This was alongside a £1.36 million increase in the total cost of the scheme. In comparison, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) had a unit cost of £920 for 2019/20, albeit this had increased from £713 in 2018/19.
In April 2021, LeO established a stakeholder Advisory Group to challenge its approaches and provide advice on ways to reduce the complaints backlog and improve its operational performance. As a member of this group, the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO) has been seeking feedback from its members.
The key focus for LeO must be to tackle the backlog of complaints which, as of September 2021, stood at 5,677. This is a major source of frustration for both consumers and service providers and underpins overall dissatisfaction regarding LeO's performance. To do this, ACSO recommends the following:
- Set consumer expectations from the outset about anticipated timescales and the likely level of compensation that can be expected;
- Check with consumers during the early stages to understand if they would be willing to re-engage with the service provider to resolve the complaint;
- Encourage early and informal resolution by facilitating engagement between consumers and service providers while a case remains in the pre-assessment pool;
- Adopt an organisation wide-policy permitting the use of Egress to accept evidence;
- 'Pool together' complaints against larger providers and engage with them to identify which complaints may be able to be resolved informally;
- Request less and/or more focussed documentation from providers in cases where poor service has been acknowledged.
By reducing the backlog and resolving complaints more actively, improved consumer experience and overall sector satisfaction with LeO should follow. ACSO looks forward to engaging further with LeO to help implement the above recommendations.
Author: Andy Tindall, ACSO secondee and senior litigation executive at Fletcher's Solicitors.