Legal Ombudsman Bewertungen 

The case worker took the time to really understand the case and the issues surrounding the complaint that had been raised. She asked questions and looked at all the relevant information/evidence before coming to document her findings.
The investigation surrounded the practice and conduct of Barrister Mr Pirone and his chambers St Ives. Avoid both!!!! The findings showed that they both failed in their competence, representation and duty of care within a criminal case.

A total farce of a service funded by the companies you as a consumer are trying to get recompense from!!!! Closed network, that can’t even work within a timely manor!!! 2 years to get an investigator allocated…..
Total waste of time!!!!!

I would give a zero if possible!
Make it almost impossible to lodge a legitimate complaint, asking you to provide/disclose information only the solicitors have and refute your claim if you can not "speak in solicitors jargon "
Dont waste your time and energy on them, just puppets for corrupt/ inept solicitors!!

Sticks up for corupt solicitors, let them get away with taking advantage of clients. I've lost all faith in the law profession. Well done legal ombudsman for letting a dishonest solicitor get away with taking advantage of their clients, for their own significant financial gain. Shocking.

They aren't worth even a 1 star My solicitor forgot to do the closer on my house sale and more importantly they forgot to inform me . Moving out cost me a lot of money. I asked when I got my money as it should be on my account. She wrote a letter oh I will start the closer?  an hour later All I have got is this matter no longer proceeds ??? All I asked from them inform me if something not right , they didn't do that  I called them the manager said my fault it's was  a recording conversation. So I complained with the ombudsman. Waiting month for a response but they can not tell me how to investigate the case or why they made a decision it's my fault ???   Instead what I had to pay and lost money all i got was 300 pounds .Absolutely waist of time and you just get more stress . Rather look for a solicitor to go against them .
Not talking about I have to deal the solicitor again if i want my 300 pounds. They don't care about people . Its a reason they do get this much 1 star.

Absolutly shoddy operation.

Despite reams and reams of evidence they found nothing wrong with the Firm..7.5 years later..still waiting for Probate to be finished.
Lots of evidence regarding re writing Will to benefit Charities..despite mother being incompetent..no assessor involved..contrary to MCA..and Solicitor concerned..then willing an award for Will writing and charities..flabergasted.

This organisation simply there to protect Solicitors and Firms..certainly not the public..an utter disgrace.

As said about..from 2015 to current..still waiting for Probate..ppfftt

I am an Attorney under a Lasting Power of Attorney for my mum, who has dementia. One of the things an Attorney must do is get a copy of their loved one’s will in order to make informed decisions when dealing with their property. The Legal Ombudsman published guidance to Solicitors saying in this situation, they should provide a copy of the will to Attorneys.
The solicitor holding the will refused to email me a copy unless I got written evidence from a medical professional that she had lost mental capacity. This is unnecessary and it caused me frustration and wasted time.
I complained to the Legal Ombudsman. They pretty much copied and pasted what the solicitor had said (which was incorrect) and said they would treat my complaint as “withdrawn”. I explained the law to the Ombudsman, who then came back with a different reason why they would treat my case as “withdrawn”. I insisted that my complaint should not be withdrawn.
Eventually they made a decision which shocked me. They said that, for the Ombudsman’s purposes, I cannot complain about the stress caused to me, because I represent my mother, who would not have been stressed! This contradicts the Legal Services Act 2007, which says that as an Attorney I do have a right to complain to the Ombudsman about poor service by a solicitor to me personally in my role as an Attorney.
In the end, the Ombudsman can make up it’s own rules and there is nothing I can do about it.
This new rule excludes a new class of complainants from using their service: If you are an Attorney and a solicitor causes you distress, you are excluded from complaining about it to the Legal Ombudsman.
The Legal Ombudsman went out of their way to find excuses for rejecting my claim and in the end, had to invent a new rule to get rid of me.
I suspect that they are doing their best to reduce their backlog of complaints and I’m just a victim of that.
I’ve awarded them one star because they were always polite when sweeping me under the carpet.

Despite providing lots of evidence my solicitor held up the sale of my property and it still hadn’t gone through 8 months after it was sold ( cash sale should have taken 4 weeks max )the legal ombudsman couldn’t find any evidence they were to blame. I wouldn’t bother they are useless.

How on earth is this shockingly shameful outfit allowed to remain in operation in this country? I didn't think anything being conjured up in this unscrupulously biased government fiery pit could surprise me but now reading about the many other appalling encounters I am more driven than ever to seek to hold them accountable. I urge everyone who has been drastically let down to contact and complain to their MPs and reach out to the media.. as I will be doing. There is absolutely no way that this should be allowed to go on. Yet another major scandal in the UK?! For anyone else reading this before reaching out to them.. I seriously hope you avoid the extensive delays, wasted energy and time and painful uphill battle - that is in addition to still having to deal with the original issue!! NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.

Biased, corrupt and pathetic. The legal ombudsman exists only to protect barristers and solicitors, nothing more.

We lodged a complaint in 2021 concerning the lack of Trust work done on an exchange of property held at the time in trust. Three years later the complaint still hasn't been completed and the staff fail to respond to emails on time if at all.

I address matters with a "customer experience specialist" called Ms Debbie Curry who has refused to investigate any breach detailed and which months later of opening an internal complaint process, she has refused to address any part of the complaint or any EQA 2010 matter. At time of writing this review, such a sorry state of affairs remains the case.

The staff here have absolutely no understanding of the Public sector Equality Duty. They don't operate under it and haven't processed it in 13 years of it becoming law. In other words they ignore the law. This is supposed to be a legal watchdog.

s149 EQA 2010 is of prime importance in matters raised under discrimination of practice yet this body gets their in house legal representation to write a letter that doesn't explain why they cannot provide any data to show the duty has been examined. Instead Mr Haynes tried to intimidate us with alleged costs. Since his legal position was explained as wrong, there has been silence. Quite simply, if they don't like what you mention, they won't respond.

For those affected by poor service (this is particularly the case for elderly and vulnerable people at the hands of solicitors) this duty is of serious importance. Without it, the result is further discrimination as a result of their complaint handling and service complaints performed by customer experience specialists as Ms Debbie Curry. One must ask why the title given their complete lack of knowledge about the law or about their PSED duty still not evidenced in 13 years of becoming law.

As anyone who is aware of the collapse of the court system (the current waiting time for court hearings is anywhere between over a year to 3 years) the ease of taking such a useless and unlawful organisation to court will prove an uphill struggle. We are currently awaiting the backlogs in the system to clear and will file as soon as is possible. Not only are there delays in instructing which is ironic as the complaint was supposed to handle poor levels of service in the legal system but it causes serious problems.

Discriminatory, rude, uncaring, unprofessional and an absolute disgrace that we must pursue this with the courts regardless of the wait and added stress.

The Ombudsman system is in a mess and needs to be overhauled asap. Delays in complaints go on month after month with inaction and the staff couldn't care less. Our original investigator Brendan O'Malley has gone missing and no replacement has been assigned. The internal review process is appallingly bad if non-existent.

I have never been in contact with an Ombudsman as bad though we have a similar problem with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for the same reason. That is also waiting instruction and court. Six months on, still nothing.

Those mentioned above have absolutely no idea about what they are doing yet are funded by the tax payer to even greater amounts as detailed in 2022. This means the Legal Services Board who recognise the serious failings, rather than scrap this dreadful body, ply it with yet more money. This clearly suggests the government are happy with the mess and will continue to fund it regardless. Oh joy.

If you have a serious problem as we did and do, don't waste time on this body. The delays even to reach assessment are too long and when the case is assigned, the case officers aren't trained in the law.

A total waste of time and money. The government must act but won't most likely even after the Tories have been removed.

Chief ombudsman Paul McFadden said: 'It is clear that there is an underlying core of dissatisfaction with legal service provision, expressed through the complaints system, that is not changing or being sufficiently addressed.'

Quite so.

Horrific. Have complaint against solicitors refusing to provide a copy of a will hidden in probate fraud. Been 1 year and still not investigated. Shocking service. UK has fallen into the pits. No justice available anymore yet these people are getting paid!!

I went to the Legal Ombudsman as I had issues with the service from my solicitors and it was a waste of time!

Due to the slowness of my Solicitors sending requested documents to the Bank it resulted in me defaulting on my mortgage and having to pay the increased interest charges. This went on for 3 months.

I thought the Legal Ombudsman was meant to be impartial but when you read through their findings it's far from it.

It is disgusting that a company cannot take accountability for their errors and the client has to pay for their incompetence. Even worse that you can't rely on the Legal Ombudsman to give an impartial view.

An almost totally useless outcome. Whilst the staff (an Investigator and an Ombudsman) were polite and tried to be open, the outcome was very disappointing. My Solicitor (Wilson Browne, Northampton) made multiple mistakes in both legal processes and maths re a probate case and took 19 months to notice their mistakes. This 'cost' me about 100 hours of my time to deal with and around £6000 in lost rental income. The Ombudsman found in my favour re the majority of my complaint, but still left me liable for all the lost income and other costs that I'd been forced to incur. They did award me £500 for any distress that Wilson Browne had caused me. It cannot be right that the system so favours the Solicitors firm that made multiple serious mistakes.

Even one star is too much for these... individuals there!

Experience on 31 May 2024, totally disinterested operator
Rang back later and spoke to somebody who appeared far more experienced and empathetic and made an effort to understand my query. I asked her how long I had to explain my issue and she replied I am here for you for as long as it takes.

Phoned back today 11 June and spoke to somebody rude, arrogant, patronising, impatient and outright nasty with no idea how to speak to a customer and said she would terminate the call which she did abruptly before the discussion was finished.

I do wonder how some people can go to work in front line services and remain in their job with such a poor attitude. She refused to give her surname so a complaint could be registered against her.

“Here to help” is the heading on one of their factsheets!
Their role is the provision of a public service but their attitude seems to be designed to put people off using their services.

I note the organisation does not bother to respond to any reviews here which is always a bad sign for any organisation.

Useless organisation who rule out every complaint with their corrupt rules.

The legal ombudsman service are now ruling every complaint out with ridiculous rules that could only have been drafted by an idiot!

Basically, they are so busy with complaints they’ve come up with a plan to avoid the complaint going any further in favour of the law firms.

A member of staff I spoke with recently was so patronising I terminated her call. Proving they are now desperate they can’t even employ professional people anymore!

From my recent experience, the service is utter trash. This has have left me wondering why this platform is still in place especially with so many terrible reviews on trust pilot. I really am at a loss with this disgusting organisation that is run by unprofessional people nowadays. What a shame the service has become so poorly run by unprofessional staff. Shocking 😡

Took nearly 2 years to respond to my complaint on behalf of my elderly mother regarding a solicitor who refused to recognise my legal rights to act under my LPA Finance and Property for my late mother. During this time she had a stroke, couldnt speak and then sadly passd away 6 months ago. They have recently contacted me suggesting that they attend to my complaint originally posted on 08/11/2022 but they told me, up front that they can't take any responsibility for their extreme delay. I have since had to pay a significant amount in legal fees to do what I should have been able to do for nothing under UK Law. I cannot believe how impotent and useless these people apear to be? How can I be expected to trust them? There is no justice here for my late mother nor I and I am now experiencing a triple whammy of mourning, extra costs and injustice, all because they didn't think my complaint was important enough at the time. They now expect me to trust them to start the investigation with no chance of a resolution or choose to withdraw my complaint. I asked them to mark it unresolved and they threatened to withdraw it themselves. The SRA never responded either. Don't think for a minute that these organisation can help you. You are not protected at all, in my view. They really don't seem to care and will harrass you with their ridiculous and inhuman processes and procedures, giving you ultamatims until your complaint fits an outcome that they want (dismissed). I am only human and I dont think this is acceptable in our society.

We can finally demonstrate that the people in Birmingham (Legal Ombudsman) are biased, corrupt, untruthful and not legally trained. Our opinion is that these toxic people are here solely to protect corrupt and incompetent out of control law firms and their insurance companies.
Long story short... There was a 37 year old property charge which simply required removing using the correct and required process/forms via the HM Land Registry (HMLR) ie Letters of Administration, Grant de bonis non, and the form DS1 under sec 116 of the Supreme Court Act 1981. This was the correct and required evidence expected to remove this charge.
But instead, regulated said firm based in Hereford, first applied to remove said charge using the INCORRECT forms resulting in failing to remove said charge. IE not using the required evidence expected above. The HMLR even explained to them the correct and required process as seen in the HMLR 'Document List' and correspondence obtained and provided to the Legal Ombudsman (LO).
After this failure, i/we were then unnecessarily advised, misled and hounded for months by said firm, to "PAY" a non existent debt PLUS INSTEREST, which was supposedly required to be paid to remove this 37 year old property charge. This is despite the fact that the firm knew no CCJs existed, no debt existed, no Land registry restrictions existed, no requirement to pay any debt existed, and also the Act of Parliaments Limitation Act 1980 sec 20 clearly stating the law surrounding property charges is 12 years, not 37 years. This was all ignored by said firm as shown in previous evidence provided. This ill advice later becomes apparent which is why it later results in omission.
However, after months of being hounded by this firms ill advice to "pay the debt plus interest" and stating inter alia "once paid we will proceed to remove the charge", the firm unnecessarily drafted a deed of settlement agreement (without the client or beneficiary involved), and the non existent debt was then PAID (£30k) in the false belief that said advice provided by this firm would be honoured and was necessary to supposedly remove this charge.
Once paid, said firm then tried to use this Deed of settlement/Payment via the HMLR in an attempt to remove the 37 year old charge, incorrectly advising and stating to HMLR "We provide the settlement payment is proof the charge has now been removed". This false legal advice then proves incorrect resulting in omission because it was incorrect advice. The firm then suddenly renounce from the job telling us to find a new solicitor. So why did we pay the so called debt as advised? How would this make anyone else feel? The HMLR themselves had no idea what this firm was attempting to do.
As a result, we were then forced to find another professional firm who later removed the charge correctly as required, but at extreme stress and extra costs of course.
The HMLR then rightly explained that the Hereford firms Deed settlement payment (pay the debt) is "INSUFFICIENT" and the HMLR simply required the correct forms/process (above) to remove this charge. The job remained unconcluded under the firm. No payments or Deed of settlements were required whatsoever ("Pay the debt"). The whole thing resulted in failure, breach and omission due to the false advice provided by said firm. No debt existed and certainly no payments were required to remove this charge. Only the correct forms were required which said firm failed to provide at all stages.
On top of this, the firm charged a extortionate £10k for this unnecessary false advice which resulted in omission!
According to the people at the Legal Ombudsman in Birmingham, during their so called investigation, they found that the level of service provided by said firm was "FAIR and REASONABLE", and offered me £250 compensation and a 40% reduction in costs!!! Yet they never explained where my £30k went and failed to demonstrate how it removed the charge as assured and advised it would by said firm. We never got our money back for the service we paid for yet did not recieve. The guild counsel of Barristers has also looked into this omission in depth, with a fine tooth comb.
The LO spent their entire time picking and choosing which evidence they want to see, ignoring key evidence provided to them, twisting that evidence to suit, as well as being devoid of any respect for the law. The LO don't even know how the required form DS1 works, consistently demonstrating a lack of legal knowledge and understanding in their so called 'findings'. The LO say that they do not deal with "negligence". Wonder why.
Not fit for purpose. This is my experience with these vile incompetent dishonest people. Simply read other peoples experiences and reviews and it seems to be a common theme.

Complete waste of my time contacting the legal
Ombudsman who after several months investigated my issue. The solicitors I complained about was regarding family law and they caused me delays which i had documented but they said they didn’t think it would meet the criteria for a complaint so they dismissed it. Let down and adding to the 99% of negative reviews. Hopefully the sra or government will step in and reform this organisation so the process fair and worthy to ever contact these so called ombudsman