Independent, fair, open, effective, shrewd
Here you'll find some of our policies and procedures.
- Contact us
- Our publications
- Stories from our annual report
- Our vision and values
- Our scheme rules
- Our board and committees
- Our team
- Our official documents
- Our policies
- - Access to our information
- - Complaining about us
- - Managing unacceptable contact
- - Welsh language scheme
- Our work with other official bodies
- Our consultations
- Our response to external consultations
- Measuring our performance
- Research and statistics
- Information for suppliers
- Useful links
Access to our information
The Legal Ombudsman is committed to operating openly.Link to pdf Access to information policy (pdf opens in new window)
Complaining about us
Help us to improve our services and our commitment to you.We aim to provide consumers and lawyers with a consistently high standard of service. However, we want you to tell us as soon as possible if you are unhappy with the service you have received. This will help us to address your concerns, learn from our mistakes and to improve our service in the future.
When you are unhappy with the service we have provided, we will try to resolve your concerns quickly and effectively and also to try to find resolutions which are reasonable and acceptable to all parties.
Service complaint procedure (pdf, opens in a new window)
Service Complaint Adjudicator
Walter Merricks CBE
Walter Merricks CBE, the former Chief Financial Ombudsman, is our Service Complaint Adjudicator - the person who considers unresolved complaints about the level of service provided by the Legal Ombudsman.
We work hard to get things right first time and, when we don't, we want to learn and do everything we can to avoid a repeat. That's why we've got a service complaint procedure which you can read in the pdf document above. It explains how the Service Complaints Adjudicator fits in.
Walter Merricks qualified as a solicitor in 1970. After studying legal aid in Montreal he became the founding director of the Camden Community Law Centre. He then moved to Brunel University as a law lecturer to establish a new welfare law course. While there he served as a member of the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure (which resulted in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and the Crown Prosecution Service).
He moved on to a short career as a legal journalist and broadcaster before being appointed Assistant Secretary-General of the Law Society, responsible for the society's policy and communications.
After 10 years at the Society he was appointed the Insurance Ombudsman. This office later merged into the Financial Ombudsman Service, of which he became the inaugural Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive.
He retains an interest in dispute resolution as a board member of Ombudsman Services, the body which handles complaints for the communications, energy, property, and copyright licensing sectors.
As a result of a personal interest in infertility issues he was for six years a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, and he now chairs the Donor Conception Network charity.
He has also recently taken up another charity chairmanship of the Trustees of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
As an independent consultant he recently completed a review for the Civil Aviation Authority of its consumer claims process under the ATOL scheme. In January 2012 he was appointed a member of the board of the Gambling Commission.
Managing unacceptable contact
The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is committed to providing a fair, consistent and accessible service for all of our customers. However, LeO has to balance this by providing a safe working environment for our staff to operate within and to ensure that our work is undertaken in an efficient and effective manner.Link to pdf Managing unacceptable contact policy (pdf opens in new window)
Welsh language scheme / D Cynllum Iaith Gymraeg terfynol
The scheme has been prepared under the requirements of the Welsh Language Act 1993 and in consultation with the Welsh Language Board prior to publication.It describes how, when providing services to the public in Wales we will give effect to the principle that we will treat the English and Welsh languages on a basis of equality, so far as is both appropriate in the circumstances and reasonably practicable.
Lluniwyd y cynllun dan ofynion Deddf yr Iaith Gymraeg 1993 ac mewn ymgynghoriad â Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg cyn ei gyhoeddi.
Mae'n disgrifio sut y byddwn, wrth ddarparu gwasanaethau i'r cyhoedd yng Nghymru, yn gweithredu'r egwyddor y byddwn yn trin y Gymraeg a'r Saesneg ar y sail eu bod yn gyfartal cyn belled ag y bo'n briodol o dan yr amgylchiadau ac yn rhesymol ymarferol
Link to pdf Welsh language scheme/D Cynllum Iaith Gymraeg terfynol (pdf opens in new window)