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The LSO in Practice 2003–2010: “Putting Consumers First”

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Ombudsmen at the Crossroads

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Abstract

This chapter considers the term in office of the third Ombudsman, Zahida Manzoor. It charts a period of government intervention amidst the calls for radical overhaul of the Law Society’s faltering complaint-handling system. That intervention took the form of the activation of relevant parts of the Access to Justice Act 1999 and in particular the establishment of a quasi-regulatory LSCC to work alongside the LSO. Following the Clementi Review in 2004, the path was cleared for the establishment in 2010 of a new Legal Services Board and LeO to replace the LSO. The new LeO is seen to embody the dominant consumerist ethos and to displace any serious remnant of the former democratic accountability function of the LSO.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There was an interim LSO, Paul Salvidge, who held the post between November 2002 and March 2003.

  2. 2.

    In 2002/2003, there were only 24 authorised advocates from a total ILEX membership of 6,382 fellows and 23,927 members (LSO 2003b: 46).

  3. 3.

    Complaints about licensed conveyancers were always less than 1% of the LSO’s workload. The other professional bodies had no complaints at all referred, with the exception of the CIPA, which had one complaint in 2006/2007.

  4. 4.

    There was an Acting LSO from March to December 2011 who was appointed to see out the remaining cases that were still in the system.

  5. 5.

    The Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, section 21, provides for a maximum term of 3 years, with possible reappointment for a further term.

  6. 6.

    There had been a commitment during the passage of the Legal Services Bill to locate the new office in the West Midlands.

  7. 7.

    On average, 26% were premature, 19% were outside remit and 12% were out of time (LSO 2010: 20.)

  8. 8.

    For example, in 2004/2005, the average award was £408 (LSO 2005: 12).

  9. 9.

    It was always envisaged that if an LSCC were appointed, the post would be likely to be held by the existing LSO (HC Deb, col. 1020, 22 June 1999, Mr Keith Vaz).

  10. 10.

    An example of this overlap resulted from the LSO’s investigations into the way the Law Society had dealt with complaints about the actions of solicitors in relation to compensation awarded to coal miners under the government-funded compensation scheme. This produced special reports by both the LSO and LSCC (LSO 2006: 39, 2007: 30, 2008: 24, 2009: 24; LSCC 2008b, 2009: 51).

  11. 11.

    The Access to Justice Act provided that penalties were to be paid to the LSCC, who then passed them to the Secretary of State.

  12. 12.

    In fact, this was already in process. The Law Society had established the Solicitors Regulatory Authority for its regulatory arm, and the Bar Council had established the Bar Standards Board for the regulation of barristers.

  13. 13.

    The LSO’s term of office came to an end on 2 March 2011 (LSO 2009: 43).

  14. 14.

    Typically, around 8,000 cases were accepted for investigation each year. However, in the last few years these numbers have decreased, and the forecast for 2015/2016 is 6,600 and 2016/17, 6,500 (See LeO 2016).

  15. 15.

    The anticipated cost to the profession in 2016/2017 is expected to be £5 million per annum less than when the office was set up in October 2010 (LeO 2016).

  16. 16.

    There is a team of Ombudsmen in the office, headed by a Chief Ombudsman.

  17. 17.

    The LSB proposed that will-writing should be made a regulated activity (LSB 2013a). The government rejected this proposal (MoJ 2013).

  18. 18.

    Members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales have voluntarily joined the LeO scheme (See OLC 2015: 3).

  19. 19.

    In its Review of Legal Services Regulation, conducted between June and September 2013, the government concluded that it was “not minded to take forward any significant proposals for reform at this time” (Call for Evidence on the legal services regulatory framework. Summary of responses. May 2014).

  20. 20.

    Directive 2013/2011/EU on ADR for consumer disputes and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 2009/22/EC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Nick O’Brien

  2. Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Mary Seneviratne

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  1. Nick O’Brien
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  2. Mary Seneviratne
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O’Brien, N., Seneviratne, M. (2017). The LSO in Practice 2003–2010: “Putting Consumers First”. In: Ombudsmen at the Crossroads. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58446-5_6

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