Most of us, at some time or another, have had cause to complain about a product or service. This may have been to a bank, a utility company, a travel operator, a healthcare provider – the list is endless. Whatever the subject of our complaint, we all know the feeling of frustration when you’re finding it difficult to be heard. We know what it feels like when our issue is ignored or trivialised.
If we are lucky, our complaint may have been handled well. Perhaps we didn’t receive any financial compensation or any change in outcome, but the feeling of being heard, having our concerns acknowledged, and just receiving an explanation can be invaluable. The more public-spirited among us may find solace in knowing that our complaint might bring about changes that benefit the next client, traveller or patient.
Whether our experience of making a complaint was good or bad, the way it was handled – and crucially how we were dealt with when we made the complaint – will have had a significant impact on how we felt overall about our interaction with the organisation. Was it easy to complain? Did we know how to complain and to whom? Was our complaint resolved without undue delay? Was the process fair?
Complaints about legal services are no different. In fact, given that many people using legal services do so at times in their lives when they are feeling especially vulnerable, if they then need to complain about their lawyer or law firm, it is important that the process is not onerous. They should feel confident that their complaint will be taken seriously and that, by complaining, they will not make their situation worse.
This isn’t always the reality, though. When a complaint is not handled adequately by lawyers and law firms, consumers have the right to take their issue to the Legal Ombudsman. Their ‘first-tier’ complaint becomes a ‘second-tier’ complaint. The Legal Ombudsman recently reported that first-tier complaint handling in 2022/23 had been inadequate in 45% of cases referred to it, fuelling the already heavy demand for the ombudsman service. We also know that legal service users currently face a range of barriers to making complaints, meaning that many simply choose instead to suffer in silence. All of this undermines public confidence in legal services, which is to the detriment not only of the profession but of society as a whole.
A step-change is needed in the way lawyers and law firms deal with complaints.
There is a wealth of good practice in this and other sectors around complaint handling, but we also know that, in many cases, the reverse is true. While it is unacceptable as a matter of principle that some complaints go unanswered, or are otherwise inadequately responded to, there is also a missed opportunity here for legal businesses. A complaint can be, essentially, free consultancy. A complaint offers a legal business the opportunity to find out what went wrong for a client, and why, and to use this learning to improve the service it offers. The more a legal business can learn from its complaints – assuming it acts on this learning – the fewer it is likely to receive in the future.
If we can start to develop a culture where legitimate complaints are embraced, rather than one in which they are resented or even feared; where complainants are treated with humanity and respect and met with open dialogue rather than a wall of silence; where the focus is on understanding and explanation – we have a chance of a ‘win-win’ situation. Legal service users will have a more positive experience of making a complaint, and stronger confidence in the legal services sector. Legal businesses will glean valuable insights into how the client has experienced their service, and can make changes for the better, leading to more satisfied clients and fewer complaints.
While it should of course be a matter of general professionalism that legal businesses want to handle complaints well, there is also a practical benefit and a benefit to the firm’s ’bottom line’ here. Put simply, firms that handle complaints well are less likely to see issues escalated to the Legal Ombudsman, with the cost implications that this brings, and may be less likely to face regulatory action.
We have taken steps to encourage this kind of step-change improvement. Our new requirements, guidance and policy statement for regulators seek to foster a culture that facilitates and learns from complaints, and puts the client at the heart of the process.
In tackling this challenge together, we can ensure that the next time any one of us has cause to make a complaint to a legal services provider, the experience is not one in which we feel ignored or trivialised, but one in which we are treated with sympathy and respect, and where we feel confident that our complaint will bring about positive change.
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We are working with stakeholders interested in helping us achieve the best possible complaints resolution system for legal service users in England and Wales. The group includes approved regulators, regulatory bodies, the Legal Ombudsman and consumer support organisations.
The group’s remit is to consider what more we can do to achieve our vision and how to ensure that legal businesses are equipped with the skills and confidence they need to drive this. The group first met in February 2024. If you would like to contribute to the group’s work, please email clare.brown@legalservicesboard.org.uk.
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