Robbie Constance & Hans Allnutt explain the new Ombudsman Scheme & analyse recent regulatory risks
The Legal Services Act 2007 (the Act) created the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) to administer a new scheme to deal with consumer complaints about legal services. The proposed Legal Ombudsman Scheme rules have been published with the expectation that the scheme will “go live” in October 2010.
Having handled complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), on whose rules the Legal Ombudsman Scheme is based, since it was created, we can speculate on the key issues likely to arise.
Jurisdiction
A complainant must be an individual, or fall into one of the following categories: certain small charities, clubs and associations; trustees; personal representatives; and residuary beneficiaries. In addition, small businesses (known in the relevant EU regulations as “micro-enterprises”—with fewer than 10 staff and a balance sheet of less than €2m) can complain. Because the service is free to the complainant and informal, the award of costs is “likely to be rare”
(r 5.39).
The complaint must only relate to the services provided. No class of complaint is excluded,
