LeO pushes for expansion through voluntary jurisdiction

The Legal Ombudsman has said it wants to expand its remit to include all consumers of legal services, including complaints about "linked professional services and advice that has a legal dimension".

Earlier this year, it emerged that Mark Edwards, managing director of Rocket Lawyer UK, was discussing with LeO whether it should handle complaints about the Google-backed service under the ombudsman's voluntary jurisdiction.

Launching LeO's annual report this morning, chair Elizabeth France (pictured) said: "The Legal Ombudsman must broaden its approach to redress to mirror changing consumer behaviour and innovations in industry and legal services, which are eroding traditional boundaries between sectors.

"At the moment the Legal Ombudsman can help put things right for some consumers if service providers are regulated but this needs to be broadened - all consumers of legal services should have access to redress.

"We should define legal services, broadly, to include linked professional services and advice that has a legal dimension."

In her introduction to the report, France said LeO was still waiting to be told by the MoJ when it would be handling complaints about claims management companies.

She said the Legal Services Act envisaged that the ombudsman would handle this work and ministers had "indicated that it is their intention to enable this through Section 161 of the Act this year".

She went on: "I expect to oversee the smooth introduction of this service with the current board before my term ends on 31 March 2014.

"Beyond that I want to see us complete a consultation on the potential value of a voluntary scheme under section 164 of the Act."

Writing in the report, chief legal ombudsman Adam Sampson said: "Though conceived only in very loose terms to date, it is possible that such a scheme would also be open to bridging gaps in the regulation of estate administration, immigration advice, paralegals, and not-for-profits like the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB); the latter of which will no doubt be pressured for more and more free legal advice in the wake of legal aid changes.

"The viability of a voluntary jurisdiction would, of course, depend on organisations being willing to join and pay for it. It is, therefore, by no means a definite proposal but it is a possibility which we need to explore."

Sampson said that far from the number of complaints increasing over the past year, as LeO expected, the total fell from around 76,000 to just over 71,000 in 2012-13. He said the total number of cases resolved, 7,630, was similar to the previous year.

Divorce accounted for the highest proportion of resolved complaints, 18 per cent, followed by residential conveyancing, with 14 per cent and will writing, with 12 per cent.