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Consultation Proposal From The Legal Service Ombudsman Time Limit On Complaints Currently clients are allowed to make complaints to the Legal Ombudsman about their solicitor from six years of the alleged mistake, and for a period of three years from finding out about an issue. The Ombudsman is considering reducing the time allowed to one year of an alleged mistake, and one year from finding out about an issue. If the proposed changes are implemented, they will only apply to all new cases. The Ombudsman believes that there is merit in these proposals as it will bring their time limits into line with others, such as the Financial Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is also proposing that its staff will be given the power to dismiss a complaint without investigation and that if a reasonable revised offer is made by a law firm to settle during an investigation cases can be dismissed. Another proposal is that the Ombudsman, if it was considered that it would be disproportionate use of resources to start an investigation, would be able to dismiss a complaint. The Ombudsman references a case study where it received a 500-page complaint which related to the handling of a professional negligence claim. There were 14 heads of complaint which consisted of 48 individual points of complaint. It took an experienced investigator 18 months to make a 40-page decision with 400 pages of supporting evidence which the complainant rejected. The Ombudsman then made a 60-page decision limited to poor service around the provision of ARE insurance and communication for which the Ombudsman proposed a remedy of £500. Both parties rejected the final decision and the solicitors firm involved have applied for and are still pursuing a judicial review of the Ombudsman’s decision. My view is that the proposed changes are reasonable for the reasons provided in the full consultation paper. The Ombudsman’s consultation on these changes and other small changes to its scheme can be accessed on their website at: https:// www.legalombudsman.org.uk/media/nahpyypc/olc-scheme-rulesconsultation-feb-2022.pdf Joanna Connolly SPG Chair
spg.uk.com
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