Office for Legal Complaints publishes 2024/25 Annual Report and Accounts

The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) has today (8 July 2025) published its 2024/25 Annual Report and Accounts.

The report highlights how the Legal Ombudsman – which resolves complaints about legal services in England and Wales – delivered its service in the year 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. It also explains how the OLC ensured it provided value for money for both the public and the legal profession.

In 2024/25, the Legal Ombudsman:

  • Handled 117,534 contacts, providing support and signposting to consumers and legal service providers.
  • Received 10,447 new complaints from consumers unhappy with the legal service they had received.
  • Resolved 8,270 complaints – 45% of all cases in under 90 days and with almost half of all complaints resolved through early resolution in an average of 53 days.
  • Where assessed, found evidence of poor service in 69.5% of complaints, and poor complaints handling in 51.1%.
  • Received 11.8% more cases for early resolution or in-depth investigation (core demand) than it took on in 2023/24.
  • Continued to grow its learning and insight programme, including through the ongoing development of a model complaints resolution procedure for the sector, and the publication of a new ‘Spotlight’ series of insight articles.
  • Was a diverse, inclusive and engaging place to work, with high proportions of employees from ethnic minority backgrounds and lower socio-economic backgrounds, who are connected with its purpose.

OLC Chair Elisabeth Davies said: 

“The trajectory of LeO’s improvement since 2021/22 is self-evident, and it continued to deliver in 2024/25. The credit for this goes, as ever, to LeO’s people, who can be rightly proud of the unstinting customer focus, determination and flexibility they’ve shown in making and sustaining this step-change.  

“We can now look back on the first year of delivery under that strategy and reflect on both some notable achievements and continuing challenges – for LeO and the wider legal sector.  

“What has become ever clearer over this last year is the interconnectedness of the two objectives in our strategy: to deliver an accessible, quality service, and to be a constructive and strategic voice for improvement. 

“Demand for LeO’s services continued to increase in 2024/25 and this has undoubtedly shaped LeO’s service development. As an innovation-orientated organisation LeO has continued to meet demand challenges through operational transformation and through increased transparency of its casework and the learnings that can be taken from it. 

“While we take due pride in everything we’ve accomplished over the past year, and indeed in the longer trajectory of improved performance at LeO, we know there is no room for complacency. There is much yet to be achieved to fulfil our vision, and we look forward to delivering the second year of our strategy in 2025/26.” 

Chief Ombudsman Paul McFadden said: 

“As this annual report demonstrates, LeO maintained the pace of our performance and service improvement in 2024/25 – continuing to deliver high performance and resolve historically high numbers of complaints. Despite demand challenges, LeO resolved 4.4% more complaints than in 2023/24 with 45% of all cases also resolved within 90 days, a key performance benchmark for LeO and the wider ombudsman sector. We have again demonstrated that LeO’s improved operating model is both effective and sustainable.

“We have simultaneously invested in building the insight-sharing capability we will need to make a positive, lasting difference in our sector and help manage consistently high demand for our help. That work and collaboration is building real momentum as we move through 2024/25, but the scale of demand shows that we cannot be complacent about our standards and performance.

“That is equally true for the wider sector: people using legal services need to be able to rely on providers to deliver consistently high standards – and our experience shows there’s a clear and urgent need for improvement. This is why we’ve committed to investing in LeO’s impact objective – ensuring our insights deliver key learnings and that LeO is a voice for improvement.

“None of this progress is possible without the commitment, dedication and hard work of LeO’s people. They can be proud of all that they have achieved and look forward with confidence to the next stage in the organisation’s journey.”

Notes

  • The Legal Ombudsman scheme (LeO) was established by the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) under the terms of the Legal Services Act 2007 (the Act). The Act also established the Legal Services Board (LSB) to oversee the regulation of the legal profession in England and Wales. Both the OLC and the LSB are arm’s-length bodies of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). LeO’s work supports and aligns with the regulatory objectives.
  • LeO resolves complaints about legal services that legal providers haven’t resolved to customers’ satisfaction – as quickly and informally as possible. LeO covers the majority of legal services provided in England and Wales. The rules and limits about what complaints LeO can help with are set out on its website.
  • 2024/25 marks the first year of the OLC’s 2024-27 Strategy for the Legal Ombudsman – focused on two objectives of service and impact. The OLC’s current strategies and business plans for LeO are published in full on LeO’s website.