How to Complain About a Solicitor
The Legal Ombudsman is an independent body set up to resolve disputes between consumers and legal service providers. If you need to take your complaint a step further and claim for compensation due to solicitor negligence, Been Let Down can help.
You can complain about a solicitor through the Legal Ombudsman, an independent body set up to resolve disputes between consumers and legal service providers.
In this guide, we explain how to handle complaints about solicitors and cover your next steps if your legal team acted negligently. If you need to take your complaint a step further and claim for compensation due to solicitor negligence, Been Let Down can help.
Making a complaint about a solicitor
If you’re feeling disappointed with a recent service from a solicitor, you deserve to have your voice heard. Whether your case reached an upsetting outcome, lasted for an excessive period, or involved unprofessional treatment from your legal team, there are plenty of reasons why you might be dissatisfied.
Formal complaints about solicitors are handled by the Legal Ombudsman. This is a free-to-use, impartial service set up to resolve disputes and complaints relating to lawyers, solicitors and the legal service industry.
The service accepted its first complaints in October 2010 as a result of the Legal Services Act 2007, replacing the Legal Complaints Service.
Solicitor complaints through the Legal Ombudsman
The Ombudsman for Solicitors handles approximately 7,000 disputes between complainants and their service providers every year. This service offers two key functions:
- Investigating both sides of complaints made about legal service providers from consumers before coming to a resolution.
- Sharing learnings from those investigations to help providers understand how to give a consistently high-quality service and how to resolve complaints themselves.
The Legal Services Ombudsman deals with a variety of complaints, including solicitor issues arising from buying and selling a house, problems that arise from making a personal injury claim, and family law dispute resolution. Any type of business you have had with a solicitor will be considered.
What can the Legal Ombudsman help me with?
The Legal Ombudsman can help you with complaints against any legal services provider, including:
Primarily, the Ombudsman for regulated legal service providers is there to help with complaints about poor service and, for these purposes, it can often guide you to a resolution. However, the Legal Ombudsman cannot provide any legal advice and therefore cannot represent you in any legal proceedings. If you have an issue that goes beyond a solicitor complaint – for example, you want to pursue compensation for a financial loss – then the Legal Ombudsman cannot help you to pursue that claim. Instead, our legal specialists at Been Let Down can help you to take the next step.
My solicitor acted negligently. Can you help?
Sometimes, your situation may require more than just a complaint against your solicitor. If you’ve suffered losses to your finances or health at the hands of your legal team, you might have experienced solicitor negligence. In this scenario, you’ll need to find a solicitor specialising in professional negligence to help to pursue your claim.
As experts in the field of professional negligence, our team at Been Let Down is the best option for advising you on how to bring a claim against and pursue your claim for compensation. After a free, no-obligation initial consultation, you can choose to take your claim further.
Complaints about solicitors: Our expertise
Head of Professional Negligence Rob Godfrey says
"As experts in solicitor negligence claims, our team has helped countless clients take the critical step beyond filing a Legal Ombudsman complaint to pursuing a claim directly against the solicitor who let them down. We understand that negligence by a legal adviser can feel like a betrayal of trust, and we're here to make sure that justice is a reality, not just a possibility."
FAQs about Legal Ombudsman complaints
If you are dissatisfied with your legal team, it can be difficult to know where to begin to look for help. If you’ve decided to complain about your solicitor, we understand that you’ll want to be taken seriously and share as much detail as possible.
Your first call must be to make a complaint to the legal firm. They have 8 weeks to respond. If you have followed their complaints process and you are still dissatisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman. If you have made a complaint directly to the law firm and they have ignored you then you can direct the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. It is important to know, the Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made within a year of the date of the issue about which you are complaining or of you realising there was a concern.
The Legal Ombudsman does not charge members of the public any fees for its services and will offer you impartial support to resolve the issue. You can find the Legal Ombudsman’s contact details online, or fill out a Legal Ombudsman complaint form today.
If you have any queries, feedback or problems surrounding your complaint, you can write to the Legal Ombudsman at the following postal address:
Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
If your issue goes beyond the remit of the Legal Ombudsman, your next step should be to contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
The SRA has a wealth of information on issues related to complaining about a solicitor that you may find useful. You can contact the SRA by phone, email or letter.
Rather than dealing with complaints about poor service, the SRA as a regulatory body can deal with more serious issues relating to complaining about a solicitor, such as the solicitor telling lies, stealing your money, failing to meet the regulatory standards. Some of these issues may also amount to professional negligence.
The SRA can ensure your solicitor meets the necessary standards and complies with its SRA code of practice. However, bear in mind that neither the Legal Ombudsman nor the SRA can help you to pursue a legal negligence claim for compensation – that’s where our team comes in.
If you’ve already made a Legal Ombudsman complaint but you’d like to take the matter further, you can call us or complete an initial claim form on our website. You’ll then be called back by a member of our legal team who will take down further details to assess your case.
We’ll always be honest about the prospects of your claim and will only take on your case if it has a reasonable chance of success. If we do take on your claim, we can usually offer to do so on a No Win No Fee basis, which means you won’t pay us a penny unless your compensation claim is successful.
Legal time limits often apply to legal negligence claims – under the Limitation Act 1980, this time limit is, in most instances, six years from the date of the negligence or loss. There are variations and exceptions in specific circumstances. A solicitor specialising in professional negligence will be able to properly advise you.
However, if you suspect that your legal team failed in their duty of care to you, the best time to act is now. We can help you to get the compensation you deserve – and help you to start moving forwards. So, get in touch today to start your free, no-obligation consultation. You can also find out more about our legal negligence advice before you contact our team.
Contact us today to discuss your complaint about a solicitor
If your complaint goes beyond the help available from both the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA, and surrounds any type of loss for which you wish to claim compensation, then our team of solicitor negligence specialists can help.
Contact Been Let Down to find out how we can help with your case for solicitor negligence compensation. Call us on 0800 234 3234, request a callback or fill out an initial claim form to get things moving today.
Rob Godfrey is the Head of Professional Negligence at Been Let Down. He is regarded as one of the UK’s leading negligence experts with over 25 years’ experience in litigation.
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