The Legal Ombudsman is currently developing and piloting a new complaint handling framework which aims to bring simplicity and consistency to lawyers’ in-house complaints handling processes.
The Model Complaints Resolution Procedure (MCRP) has been developed in collaboration with the legal regulators across the sector, bringing together collective insight and experience to deliver a key resource for driving improvements in complaint handling.
Effective complaint handling is critical in ensuring that consumers can have confidence in the legal services they receive. Since its inception in 2010, LeO has continued to see significant variation in practice, process and culture when it comes to in-house (“first-tier”) complaint handling. Some service providers are consistently providing their clients with an excellent service, whilst others are providing an inadequate first-tier complaints handling experience, and a smaller number of providers are not responding to their client complaints at all.
In 2024/25, where assessed, 48.7% of complaints had evidence of unreasonable first-tier complaint handling. Our data also shows that substantial volumes of people are still approaching us without having been fully through their lawyers’ in-house process – and we continue to see evidence of poor or completely absent signposting to LeO.
As outlined in the Office for Legal Complaint’s 2024-27 strategy, alongside resolving complaints, the second vital part of LeO’s work is sharing learning and insight from the complaints it sees. This promotes better complaint handling, prevents future complaints and helps drive higher standards in legal services. LeO is in a unique position to provide more than just data on the number of complaints we receive, and our experience of investigating complaints and the insight it provides is an important part of understanding what needs to improve.
It is from this position that we have been working alongside the legal regulators to develop a standardised approach to complaint handling – the Model Complaints Resolution Procedure.
The core principles of complaint handling are not unique to any one profession or sector – but these are often the things we see go wrong.
For consumers, the introduction of clear standards and an expectation of greater consistency will bring simplicity, clarity and confidence over what to expect if they want to raise complaints about the service they’ve received – whatever that service may be. Providers of legal services will also have clarity and confidence over what’s expected of them – helping ease the burden of compliance on smaller providers in particular.
In developing our model complaints procedures, it has been vital that we bring together all legal services regulators, to ensure that our collective insight and knowledge of what is happening across the sector is supporting the changes required. It also helps identify where LeO can effectively support the LSB’s aim to deliver a step-change improvement in first-tier complaint handling through its revised Section 122 Requirements, Statutory Guidance and Statement of Policy. As a result, we have been able to develop a draft MCRP which works across the sector and is capable of taking account of the differences in regulation and the nature of the service providers which fall within our jurisdiction.
A pilot of the MCRP will help ensure the final product adapts to take into account of the experience of legal professionals and the practical realities of first tier complaints handling and ensure that we are able to roll out an enhanced MCRP for the sector.
Consumer organisations will be central to ensuring the final MCRP is supported by a robust understanding of the current barriers to raising a complaint and what additional resources complainants may require.
It is unlikely that legal service providers will ever be able to avoid complaints entirely. So, it’s important to be able to recognise when a complaint is being made and to deal with it appropriately.
A key principle of the MCRP is rooted in the significant benefit we have seen in moving to an operating model which has early resolution at the core of all complaint resolution. Resolving a complaint at the earliest and most appropriate point not only ensures an improved customer experience, but it is also the most cost-effective option for service providers.
Early resolution means parties working together to understand what went wrong, and how it can be put right. From experience, we know that early explanations of how or why issues may have gone wrong, or a quick and meaningful apology can often be more beneficial than a commercial gesture of compensation at a later date.
The next stage in our development is the testing of the MCRP through a pilot with a network of service providers. Those chosen to take part in the pilot were selected to ensure a representative sample from across different types of service provider, of various sizes, in locations across England and Wales, and from different areas of law.
The pilot will take place over summer 2025 and once completed we will be assessing the results to make any necessary changes based on the lessons we have learned. A full consultation on the draft MCRP and its implementation will take place in the new year.
Once we have developed and launched the final MCRP and the supporting information, we will issue it as guidance for the sector. If widely adopted, introducing the MCRP will help reduce the wide range of procedures currently in operation, improve their quality, and enhance the experience consumers have when making a complaint. We will also be developing a detailed suite of guidance materials to support the MCRP, as well as letter templates and toolkits for service providers.
