E-mail from the Ministry of Justice, 7/4/08.

From: Ryan.Holmes@justice.gsi.gov.uk Holmes, Ryan
To: eribsskog@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 16:09:19 +0100
Subject:

Dear Mr Ribsskog

Thank you for your email of 19 March, addressed to the Ministry of Justice, regarding making a complaint against the Legal Services Ombudsman (LSO). The letter has been forwarded to the Legal Services Regulation and Redress Division as we are responsible for the policy relating to this matter.

While I am sorry to hear of the difficulties you have experienced, I should explain from the outset that the legal profession is both independent and self-regulating and therefore, neither Ministers nor their officials are able to intervene in, or comment on individual cases.

Similarly, the Legal Services Ombudsman (LSO) is independent of both the legal profession and the Government and, in order to preserve that independence, Ministers and officials are not able to comment on, intervene in, or vary her conclusions. However, with regard to your query about the complaints procedure of the LSO, if you do have a complaint about the service that the Ombudsman provides - for example, they failed to reply to your correspondence or did not answer your telephone calls - you should write to their Corporate Services Manager. She will investigate your complaint, and provide you with a response within ten working days. However, the Corporate Services Manager has no authority to review decisions taken by the Ombudsman. If you have a complaint about the Ombudsman's report, you should address your concerns to the Ombudsman.

If you wish to complain about the service you have received from the LSO (but not the decision - see below) you must contact your MP who will decide whether to pass the complaint on to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSP). The PHSO can look at the service you have received and, if it finds any evidence of poor service, can take action to put the matter right. There is usually a twelve month limit, from the time you were aware that there was a reason to complain, upon this kind of complaint. The Ombudsman's powers and responsibilities are set out in an Act of Parliament (the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967) which says that complaints must be sent to them through Members of Parliament.

There is no appeal against the LSO's decision. However, the LSO's decisions, like the decisions of other public authorities, are open to judicial review and you may consider taking your case to the High Court in order to have a judicial review of the LSO's decision. It is important to bear in mind that judicial review is not an appeal procedure and is not generally concerned with the merits of the decision. Instead, it examines whether the decision reached by a public body was done in a lawful manner. Therefore, I would recommend that you seek independent legal advice should you wish to pursue this course of action.

Additionally, you may be interested to know that the Government has brought forward legislation to overhaul the regulatory structure of legal services in England and Wales. The Legal Services Act 2007 provides for the creation of the Legal Services Board (the Board), a single oversight body, independent of both the Government and the legal professions. It will be a publicly accountable body with the power to enforce high standards in the legal sector, replacing the current maze of regulators with overlapping responsibilities. Its Chair and the majority of its members will be lay persons.

The Act will also establish a single and fully independent Office for Legal Complaints (OLC). Its Chair and the Majority of its members will also be lay. The OLC will administer an ombudsman scheme providing a single point of entry for consistent handling of all consumer complaints about providers of regulated legal services. This will replace the current system whereby complaints against the different types of legal professionals are handled by their own representative bodies.

I am sorry that I cannot be of more assistance, although I do hope that this information is of some use to you.

Yours sincerely,


Ryan Holmes
Legal Services Regulation and Redress Division



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