The Legal Ombudsman: How to avoid client complaints

In this episode of the Today's Conveyancer podcast David Opie is joined by Ombudsman at The Legal Ombudsman, Jason Chapman.The Legal Ombudsman was introduced in 2010, replacing the Legal Complaints Commission and in the course of discussion Jason reveals that conveyancing is one of the most complained about areas of law In total the Ombudsman deals with about 6000 cases per year, of which 1/3rd are related to conveyancing. In general, between 10-30% of complaints are taken forward to final decision and 48-50% complaints are upheld. In the course of the discussion Jason outlines some of the main areas of complaints, and provides some thoughts on how best to avoid complaints in the first place, and deal with them most effectively as and when they do happen. Jason also discusses the impact of the SDLT exemption and extension, which had a huge impact on conveyancers at the time, and an unintended knock-on impact on other areas of service delivery for law firms. The Today's Conveyancer podcast can be found on your preferred podcast provider and also at www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk. Subscribe and listen in for all the latest conveyancing industry news and views. Thank you to our podcast sponsors LEAP Legal Software and InfoTrack