England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

, the Legal Services Ombudsman was a

statutory A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...

officer that investigated allegations about the improper, ineffective or inefficient way that complaints about

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

s are handled by their respective self-regulating professional bodies. The Ombudsman is appointed by, and is answerable to, the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

and

Secretary of State for Justice The secretary of state for justice, also referred to as the justice secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Ministry of Justice. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the Un ...

. It has been abolished under the

Legal Services Act 2007 The Legal Services Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that seeks to liberalise and regulate the market for legal services in England and Wales, to encourage more competition and to provide a new route for consumer complai ...

The first Ombudsman was appointed to start work on 2 January 1991. During the first decade of operation, the office undertook 10,531 investigations: *9,456 complaints about

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

s; *1,036 complaints about

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

s; and *39 complaints about licensed conveyancers. Around 60% of the firms of solicitors in England and Wales and around 8% of practising barristers were subject of a complaint to the Ombudsman in that time.

Powers

The Ombudsman could: *Recommend that the professional body re-investigate a complaint; *Order the re-investigation; *Formally criticise the professional body; *Award compensation for distress or inconvenience. There was also a power to re-investigate the original complaint but this is only used in exceptional circumstances.

Reform

With the passing of The

the Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman was abolished. It has been replaced by the Office for Legal Complaints.

, ss.114-159/ Sch.15 This body goes by the public name

Legal Ombudsman The Legal Ombudsman is an ombudsman service that opened in October 2010. It is a free service that investigates complaints about lawyers in England and Wales. The Legal Ombudsman was set up as a result of the Legal Services Act 2007 and took over ...

References

External links

*{{cite web , title=Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman , accessdate=2008-03-08 , url=http://www.olso.org/default.asp , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307021633/http://www.olso.org/default.asp , archivedate=2008-03-07 1991 establishments in the United Kingdom 2007 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Consumer protection in the United Kingdom Government agencies established in 1991 Government agencies disestablished in 2007 Legal ethics Legal organisations based in England and Wales