Complaints About Legal Services

All regulated law firms are required to have a written complaints procedure and to tell clients how to complain. You should find the complaints information in the firm's client care letter or on their website. Your first step is always to write a formal complaint to the firm's designated complaints handler (often a senior partner or the firm's COLP — Compliance Officer for Legal Practice).

Your complaint letter should include:

• Your file reference number or matter name
• A clear description of what went wrong and when
• The impact the problem has had on you — financial loss, distress, or a missed legal deadline
• What outcome you want — a fee reduction, compensation, an explanation, or an apology

Firms regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority must acknowledge your complaint promptly and provide a final response within 8 weeks. Keep copies of all correspondence. If the firm fails to respond within 8 weeks, or sends a final response you are unhappy with, you can escalate to the Legal Ombudsman.

Read the final response carefully before you file it away. Scheme rules require the firm to tell you, prominently, that the Legal Ombudsman is available, to give its contact details, and to warn you of the six-month deadline. If those things are present, your six months has started. If they are absent, the six-month bar does not apply — which occasionally rescues a complaint that would otherwise be out of time.

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) was created by the Legal Services Act 2007 to resolve service complaints about regulated legal providers in England and Wales — solicitors, barristers (including under the Direct Access scheme), licensed conveyancers, legal executives, notaries, patent and trade mark attorneys, costs lawyers, and claims management companies.

Who can complain. Individuals, and small businesses, charities, clubs, and trusts below the scheme's size thresholds. Personal representatives and beneficiaries can complain about the administration of an estate. Larger commercial clients are excluded and must sue instead.

Two deadlines, both of which must be met.

• One year from the act or omission complained of — or, if the problem happened longer ago, one year from when you should reasonably have realised there was cause for complaint. This limb has applied since 1 April 2023 and is much shorter than the old six-year rule, so old matters are frequently out of time.
• Six months from the date of the firm's final written response, where that response contained the required signposting.

The Ombudsman has a discretion to accept a late complaint where it considers it fair to do so, but you must ask and explain.

What LeO can order. An apology; the work to be put right or completed; the return of documents; a reduction or refund of fees, with no upper limit; and compensation of up to £50,000 for loss, inconvenience, and distress. In practice the compensation element is modest — payments above a couple of thousand pounds are unusual, and the fee refund is often the larger part of the remedy. A decision you accept is binding on the firm and enforceable in court.

What LeO cannot do. Discipline or strike off a lawyer, fine a firm, decide whether the underlying legal advice was negligent, or reopen the case your lawyer handled. Complain online at legalombudsman.org.uk or by phone on 0300 555 0333; the service is free.

The Legal Ombudsman deals with poor service; the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) deals with misconduct. Misconduct is behaviour that falls below the professional and ethical standards required of a solicitor, such as:

• Dishonesty or fraud
• Misappropriation of client money
• Acting in a conflict of interest without disclosure or consent
• Breaching confidentiality
• Discrimination or harassment
• Persistent failure to comply with regulatory requirements

To report a solicitor to the SRA, use the online report form at sra.org.uk. The SRA will investigate and can impose sanctions ranging from a formal rebuke to a fine or suspension to striking the solicitor off the roll (removing their right to practise). The SRA does not award compensation — if you want financial redress, use the Legal Ombudsman route.

You can report to both the SRA and the Legal Ombudsman if the same facts give rise to both a service complaint and a conduct concern. The two processes are separate and parallel.

If you believe your solicitor has overcharged you, you have several options:

• Raise a costs dispute through the firm's complaints procedure and then the Legal Ombudsman if not resolved.
• Detailed assessment by the court: Under the Solicitors Act 1974, you can apply to the court for a detailed assessment of the bill within one month of receiving it (or up to 12 months in certain circumstances, with court permission). The court will scrutinise each item of the bill against the work actually done and the relevant standards.
• Challenging a conditional fee agreement: If you entered into a no-win no-fee agreement (CFA) and the success fee seems excessive, this can also be assessed by the court.

The Legal Ombudsman can order fee reductions, but court-based detailed assessment may be more appropriate for large or complex bills. Seek independent legal advice before commencing detailed assessment proceedings, as they can be costly if the bill is not reduced significantly. Note also the "one-fifth rule": on a detailed assessment brought by the client, costs of the assessment usually follow the outcome, so failing to reduce the bill by at least a fifth can leave you paying for the exercise.

If the firm rejects your complaint, do not argue with it twice. Get the final response, note the date, and refer — the six-month clock is short and firms occasionally rely on it.

If the Legal Ombudsman declines to investigate, it will say why. The commonest reasons are that you are out of time on one of the two limbs; that the firm has not yet had its 8 weeks; that the complaint is about conduct rather than service (in which case it belongs with the SRA or BSB); or that the real allegation is professional negligence. Ask for a review of the decision, addressing that specific reason rather than restating the complaint.

If an investigator's view goes against you, you can ask for a final decision by an ombudsman. That is a genuine second look, so use it to add evidence — the file note, the email chain, the costs estimate you were given — rather than to repeat the argument.

If the final decision goes against you, do not accept it if you intend to litigate: acceptance makes it binding and closes the court route. Where the loss was caused by a lawyer's negligence rather than poor service, the remedy is a professional negligence claim, and every regulated firm must carry compulsory indemnity insurance. The ordinary limitation period is six years from the breach, with a possible three-year extension from the date of knowledge, so take advice early — negligence claims and LeO complaints run on entirely separate clocks.

If money has gone missing and the firm has been intervened in or has closed, the SRA Compensation Fund may reimburse losses caused by dishonesty or a failure to account. That is a separate application to the SRA, with its own time limits.