Legal Ombudsman Avis 

Total waste of time! In my case, it was more than 6 months of endless form fillings, submitting evidence, DSAR logs, and detailed timelines regarding severe conveyancer negligence. At the end of this exhausting process, the Legal Ombudsman simply dismissed the case under Scheme Rule 5.7(c), claiming a laughable £400 offer was "fair redress" for thousands of pounds in direct financial damage.
When I submitted a service complaint about their superficial investigation, they washed their hands of it, stating they cannot review their own ombudsman's decision. Their only "solution"? To tell me to bring a Judicial Review claim in the High Court! And to make matters worse, their attached factsheet openly warns consumers: "If you bring a JR claim against us and lose, it is likely that we will ask the Court to make an order that you repay our legal bill for the case. Potentially, this can be very expensive."
This organisation is funded by public money and case fees, yet it operates as an unaccountable shield for negligent solicitors. They make you jump through hoops for half a year, ignore hard financial proof, and then effectively intimidate you with crippling High Court legal bills if you dare to challenge their flawed decision!
Do not waste your time or energy with the Legal Ombudsman. If a solicitor causes you financial loss, skip this useless bureaucracy and go straight to the County Court / Small Claims Track.

I have two bad reviews to give to each of Express Solicitors and the Legal Ombudsman. Well, I am still waiting for a decision to be made regarding my complaint against Express Solicitors (Manchester Office). Who are trying to apply VAT on top of the 25% success fee and who are also trying to charge me an excessive ATE insurance premium. I have always been led to believe for years that the 25% success fee was full and final, but actually it is not! Depending on the value of your PI claim, the success fee should be anything UP TO 25%. So I have a firm of solicitors who are trying to attempt to screw me over for the full amount! I called Jodie Davies at the Ombudsman for an update who seems to have replaced Dawn Molesworth and is now ‘handling ’ my complaint. She didn’t even have the courtesy to return my call. But that doesn’t surprise me after reading all the really bad reviews here! I was meant to be seeking what’s known as an ‘Early Resolution’ which I think doesn’t really exist for vulnerable claimants. Well, certainly not in my case! I stressed how important it was for me to have my complaint expedited as I only have until the 8th December (2026)to lodge a Section 70 costs assessment with the Court if my complaint was not upheld. However, I wish I had done this instead of lodging my complaint with the so called ‘legal ombudsman’. Express Solicitors and the Legal Ombudsman seem to be bouncing off each other quite well, whilst the underdog has to struggle against authorities who have too much money and power!
Never again!

No complaints against solicitors illegal & unecessary unwated actions. None resolved. 10 yrs ago cont'd ovr 2yrs all working from home most very abrupt, undermining, discriminate all left outstanding. Hav new very serious overdue claim/complnt 10 yrs later same ARC LEGAL Ins thru AGE UK with LV all need to be seriously investigated. Hav never had successful claim. Hav been cut off abt 10yrs unable to get anyware. No help since ptnr died 2013 Paying premiums d.d. are discrimate and ignorant. Am now 82 theyre acting unlawfully.

Disgusting waste of taxpayer money.

I made a complaint about a conveyancer who issued a draft contract with a higher purchase price than agreed — a mistake that would have left me liable for thousands had I not spotted it. I also lost my Help to Buy ISA bonus because the conveyancer failed to mention the eligibility rules until the eve of completion. They admitted poor service and offered a trivial amount.

I referred the matter to the Legal Ombudsman. They took eight months, did nothing meaningful, and then hid behind Rule 5.7 to avoid investigating. Their “decision” was simply to tell me to accept the conveyancer’s initial offer.

The LO is paid around £500 per referral by solicitors, so they profit from complaints even when they don’t investigate them. Meanwhile I’ve lost a couple of thousand pounds, and the best the LO can do after eight months is recommend I accept less than they were paid for doing nothing.

This exemplifies everything wrong with UK regulatory bodies: they are essentially paid to do nothing. The LO is even lobbying to increase the fees solicitors pay them, despite being toothless and refusing to hold firms accountable. When regulators won’t investigate, solicitors become careless because they know the LO won’t challenge them and will simply collect their fee and close the case.

I approached the Legal Ombudsman expecting a fair look at my complaint. Instead, I felt pushed towards accepting the solicitor’s offer before all the evidence had been reviewed.

I provided further evidence and explained why I disagreed, but the position remained unchanged. To me, the replies felt more concerned with defending the initial assessment than answering the points I raised.

The process has left me feeling unheard and worn down. Having to repeatedly explain your complaint to the organisation meant to help resolve it is deeply frustrating.

My complaint is now facing proposed dismissal, which I am challenging. Based on my experience so far, I have very little confidence in this service.

Wish there was a zero star rating ! As there is not I will add to the 96%+ and counting One Star ratings. I realised that the decision about my complaint was a fait accompli from day one. i.e. Total protection for the Solicitors Firm who did a number of dodgy things apart from over-charging. So why was I kept waiting for 18 months for the decision ? Why was I asked for so much information and evidence ? I believed that my case was being taken seriously and the decision would be fair and impartial. WRONG !!! I feel stupid and naive because I should have known that UK regulatory bodies who are funded by the people they should be dealing with are bound to be biased towards the funding companies - in this case Solicitors Firms. In other words.... (legal jargon I believe) - CONFLICT OF INTEREST ! They have to do some cases of compensation to a few unfortunate Clients who are victims in order to justify their existence.

Total waste of time, don’t bother.
Been dealing with insurance for four years due to a car accident against my self. My insurance doesn’t return phone calls or emails, 4 years on and got nowhere.
I ask for help from the ombudsman. 12 weeks for some one to look at your case. 4 years on and clearly they have not helped at all.
Case handler number 6 that I’m now dealing with my case at the ombudsman and it’s clear I’m just wasting my time with another case handler.
Tell me to email my insurance but the person dealing with my claim changers daily, so who should I email and the answer from the ombudsman email them, when the last 4 email haven’t even been answered.
Phone my insurance and after 45 mins of being past around and no one can help, ombudsman not bothered and it feels like there not interested.
After waiting for a month for the insurance company to get back to me with in a week, the ombudsman is now having ago at me, clearly there on the insurance company’s side and not doing the job their there for !.

After 4 years of not getting anywhere with my car insurance solicitors and not replying to my emails the ombudsman says I must contact my solicitors for further updates.
It is clear the ombudsman is working in favour of not the person ie: me or you but for the company that’s causing the problems !

Ombudsman are crap 💩💩💩💩💩
and are just another problem to deal with has there not bothered.
Even though it’s September now the ombudsman is off till August 3rd, that’s the reply I got, if they haven’t got a clue of the month, you don’t stand a chance.

Employ a solicitor that does something to fight for you.
PS. It’s clear the ombudsman reads this so why are you not doing anything or contacting your clients to sort these issues out ? ???

Bulllied and harrased by a partner at a law firm and the legal ombudsman couldn't care less. they are happy for abuse of power and private citizens to be harrassed and manipulated by lawyers with extensive resources. This is a waste of space organisation as you can see from all the reviews. 96% 1 star reviews says it all.

Seems to be very diorganised. Ketp getting emails adking for information i had already sent them. They disregarded my disability. Told it will take a further 8 months. Dont bother waste of an organisation.

My experience with QGLaw has left me extremely dissatisfied.

I raised serious concerns regarding an unsolicited telephone settlement discussion in which I was offered £10,000 by faster payment to resolve an insurance claim. I recorded the call, and my physiotherapist was present at the time.

Rather than addressing my concerns in a way that reassured me, QGLaw concluded that the solicitor had acted properly and described the conversation as a legitimate “without prejudice settlement discussion”.

More concerningly, when responding to my complaint, QGLaw’s Managing Director warned me that allegations I had previously published on Trustpilot were considered defamatory and that legal action could potentially include damages and an injunction.

I find it deeply troubling that a consumer raising concerns about the conduct of a solicitor should receive a response containing a threat of potential defamation proceedings.

The Legal Ombudsman has subsequently considered the jurisdictional issue surrounding my complaint, and I strongly disagree with its conclusion. I am now considering/challenging that decision through the appropriate legal process.

This review records my own experience, concerns and opinion. I have retained the relevant correspondence and recording.

I expected transparency, reassurance and proper accountability from a regulated legal practice. My experience has been the opposite.

I was disappointed with my experience of the Legal Ombudsman. The process took a long time and I felt the outcome did not fairly reflect the financial and emotional impact the matter had on me.

Even where aspects of my complaint were acknowledged I felt short changed by the level of compensation awarded. i feel the remedy offered was significantly lower than the losses and distress I experienced.

I also came away with the impression that the investigator was more receptive to the explanations provided by the solicitors firm than to my concerns. While I appreciate that investigators must remain impartial I personally felt that my circumstances were not given the same weight.... which has left me questioning the fairness of the process.

Overall after a stressful experience i am left feeling disappointed and without a genuine sense of justice or resolution

I wouldn't even give them one star. A firm completely ruined my life, messed up my case, charged me ridicilous fees after their mistakes, slapped me with bills without making me aware prior, sent me someone elses file with all their personal details, were uncontactable, put me under severe emotional and financial stress, made me suicidal and yet even after submitting all my evidence to the LEO about the firm admitting their mistakes, the LEO have agreed their service was unreasonable however advised me I should pay 50% of the fees. I declined and reasonably so and now the case is closed and the LEO have advised the firm may pursue me for another £1,000 of outstanding fees!! Which they obviously will now as they are a business and will want the funds. So now im back to the same position I was 2 years ago. Absolutely awful service and for a normal human being who cannot afford these things, they do not take into consideration the emotional impact it has on your life. For them its just another investigation, its their daily work, their 9-5... robotic. For us its the impact of our lives.

What is the point of the Legal ombudsman uk. I was threatened by a solicitor of a uk law firm and she broke all their policies and the code of conduct yet the LO backed her and the firm. The LO communication was SLOW and RUDE. When you challenge them, they come back and say "the matter has concluded". The LO workers are on a power trip - they need to remember WE the tax payer pay for them and that they are just pencil pushers. The LO sides with solicitors. Its about time, people publicly called out the LO and do social media videos on them!

I put in a complaint about NHS hospital not keeping my health record off my Broken Back and Broken shouder in one folder .as no Notes hold information
Like they should do.
My complant must of gone in the bin..waited a year..done anoyher complaint to health legal ombudsman 2025. Women rung me 2026.july.I got my hopes up.as you have to email so many pieces of eveidance. And hosipal havent done their job..now she haz email say can not do my case.? So what am I todo.I am disabled. I meec all my bones mapped in one document.very bad service this needs sacking and peoplw put in who help.we dont come to road in good faith we come because we are exhursted.

What a total disgrace. A firm inflated my abortive bill by 300% after I made a complaint to them. The Ombudsman decided that the inflation was justified because they continued to work on my case after I received the initial bill. I sent emails showing that work on my case had been paused, this didn't make any difference as apparently they just disregard the facts.

If you are reading reviews here, you have likely been let down by a legal provider and are wondering if the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is a viable option. It is not. Our experience proves LeO acts as a surrogate defence wing for law firms and their insurers, using speculative theories, bureaucratic delay, and demonstrable misrepresentation to insulate the profession from financial accountability.

At the end of a tortuous 3-year process (over 1,000 days), our case was designated "Case Zero"—the lead case intended to establish successor liability for PM Law Ltd, (and before that Wosskow Brown LLP and Pennine Law ltd) a firm shut down by the SRA in February 2026 amid an investigation into a suspected £39.5 million client fund fraud. You would expect a national Ombudsman to aggressively investigate a firm tied to a £40m collapse. Instead, LeO acted like defence counsel for a defunct firm that offered no defence of its own.

The rogue firm failed to issue mandatory SRA risk warnings regarding an off-plan property purchase, leading directly to the loss of our deposit. In his Final Decision, the Senior Ombudsman admitted the firm’s service was completely "unreasonable." Yet, he blocked financial restitution by applying a highly speculative judicial "counterfactual test"—guessing that I would have ignored the warnings anyway due to showing some "early confidence."

This completely ignored the fact that our misplaced confidence was directly caused by the firm's total misdirection. We hold audio of the firm telling us: "It’s ok to proceed as if they don’t build it for any reason you will get your money back." LeO ignored this evidence to deny our deposit remedy.

When we challenged this via a formal Pre-Action Protocol Letter Before Claim as self-litigants, LeO’s legal department issued an aggressive 9-page response signed by a senior solicitor. In doing so, their team committed two undeniable, black-and-white contradictions:

1. The Counterfactual Denial: The legal department wrote: "There was no ‘u-turn’ or ‘judicial counterfactual test’." This is a demonstrable untruth. On 7th May, the Senior Ombudsman explicitly defended it in writing: "Furthermore, the ‘counterfactual test’ isn’t particularly novel or contentious." He also printed it in Paragraph 5.11 of the Final Decision: "This means I must consider the ‘counterfactual test’ mentioned above," citing Supreme Court case law (Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton). Their legal team is literally denying the existence of the core test their Ombudsman relied on!

2. The Double-Standard Deception: The response letter claims LeO’s published Public Interest Decisions (PIDs) do not represent published standards or institutional benchmarks. This directly contradicts LeO’s own website, which explicitly states PIDs are published "to help service providers understand the standards to which we will hold them." They speak out of both sides of their mouth.

LeO operates in a total vacuum of accountability. They ignore internal SharePoint guidance (obtained via FOI), bypass mandatory procedural steps like issuing Provisional Decisions, and use their legal department to issue blatant misrepresentations when defending a Letter Before Claim.

We rejected the final decision. The Legal Ombudsman needs investigating, exposing, and closing down.

The Legal Ombudsman has become a system that protects organisations, not people. They ignore the evidence citizens provide and dismiss legitimate concerns. It’s a complete misuse of government funding. This organisation should be shut down and the money put where it’s truly needed — the NHS.

Absolute waste of time. They didn't even bother to read my complaint, they just sided with the Solicitors concerned from the outset. Out of about 40+ points I raised, they barely touched on any of them.
There could not have been a stronger case than ours against a Solicitor, who even admitted that they'd made numerous mistakes, or a person (my wife) who'd been so badly disadvantaged by those mistakes.
As I can see by all of the other reviews, ours is not an isolated case. If you're thinking about it, don't bother. You'll be wasting your time. On the other hand, as Legal professionals themselves, that's probably what they want. Fewer complaints against Solicitors.
I'm looking at a Complaint to the Law Society now, but I'm sure I'll hit a similar brick wall.

Lady is a disgrace to her profession.

She dismissed my 15-month recovery from a suicide attempt as mere 'tit for tat' when I was subjected to malicious, life-destroying accusations of serious allegations from a woman.

To weaponise a mental health crisis in such a flippant, cruel manner is not only highly unprofessional but deeply malicious. This firm is clearly more interested in peddling an agenda than practicing law or showing a shred of human decency.

State backed man hating feminism as per usual, irony is they were not even there. What a clown show and waste of me time, this organisation doesn't care less about people, it's set up a government backed smoke shield to protect lawyers.

Avoid at all costs.

Disgusting.

I have had five cases go to the legal Ombudsman 2 of them was for a vulnerable family member all cases were dropped or ignored. As soon as the case is allocated to one of their unqualified case workers they are trained to look for any reason/ opportunity to drop the case. I had one particular incompetent one who kept cancelling our phone appointments that was made by her and when I complained they dismissed my complaint. Legal Ombudsman are there solely to protect the solicitors and to make sure you run out of time to take your case legal.