How clients can make a case for complaints about their lawyers

Whatever the source of complaint, it has always been recommended that you go back to the professional concerned and air the grievance as quickly as possible. If you still feel unhappy after discussion with them, then the general port of call will now be the new Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales.

Adam Sampson will lead a trained team of seven, plus a group of assessors, who take phone calls and help people to register their complaint or direct calls to some other service if necessary. The Ombudsman's office will have the power to compel all regulated lawyers to comply with their investigations and can impose penalties that vary from an apology to the client through to paying compensation of up to 30,000. The Ombudsman's decision

will be final.

The new, free service has been set up inside the framework of the 2007 Legal Services Act, and it follows a report which called the old system of complaint and redress relating to legal services confusing and a "regulatory maze". It was felt that a scheme

of independent investigation of complaints needed to be introduced, led by an ombudsman and chairman who were not trained lawyers.

Sampson is a former probation officer, former deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust and former chief executive of homeless charity Shelter. He also has assistant prisons ombudsman on his CV. He and his staff are expecting to receive around 100,000 letters and calls a year, of which they anticipate 20,000 will be eligible for investigation.

"Most lawyers do a very good job most of the time, and Ministry of Justice research done earlier this year says 83 per cent of people are happy with the service they get when they use legal services," says Alison Robinson, head of communications for the Legal Ombudsman's Office, which is based in Birmingham. "But the legal profession has welcomed this move and sees it as a way of enhancing its reputation. "People often use the legal profession at a very emotional time in their lives – moving house, during a divorce or after someone has died or over matters of immigration – and difficult situations or misunderstandings can sometimes arise.

"The purpose of the Ombudsman is to be an alternative to court. People will still have that option, but the common sense solution is to come to us. Our aims are firstly to resolve complaints well and fairly, and secondly to take what we have learned and feed it back to the profession."

The matters that elicit the most complaints about legal services are predictable and unlikely to change: conveyancing is the most contentious, followed by probate, family law, criminal law and immigration.

"One of the things that causes great concern is the explanation of costs for legal services," says Ms Robinson. Lawyers should tell you up-front how much you will pay and keep you informed if extra costs are being incurred along the way."

Once a client has complained to a lawyer, the lawyer has eight weeks to respond. if they fail to do so or the client is still unhappy then they can contact the Ombudsman, whose office aims to resolve complaints within three months.

The service will not deal with complaints about wills or "no win, no fee" companies, where work has been carried out by staff who are not legally qualified. If the Ombudsman's office investigates a complaint against a solicitor but finds the work at issue was actually done by a barrister, then the barrister's name will be added to the complaint.

Examples of the kind of complaint you might take to

the Legal Ombudsman are included on the service's website. For instance: "Mr C is the executor of his mum's estate. The lawyer acting on his behalf had the task of selling his mother's house and closing her two bank accounts. Mr C is also a beneficiary, so once these things are done, he will receive some money from the estate. A year down the line, and the lawyer has done nothing. Mr C hasn't heard from him for two months, despite chasing him on several occasions. Mr C hasn't been able to resolve things with the lawyer himself."

Clients must first complain to their lawyer within a year of discovering the problem. If a solicitor has made a mistake while conveyancing that only comes to light when the homeowner is later selling the property, then they have a year from that point to air the grievance.

The matter of whether decisions made by the Legal Ombudsman will be made public is still under discussion, says Ms Robinson. "We'd very much like to hear people's views on that."

Further info: www.legalombudsman.org.uk Tel 0300 555 0333 or email [email protected]