Law firms could be obliged to give a timetable for resolving client complaints under new proposals from the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This follows new rules imposed last year requiring firms to be clearer about their complaints-handling processes. Complainants would also have to be given regular updates.
Some chuntering followed last Friday’s announcement, but the plans are unexceptionable. Under current rules, law firms have eight weeks after receiving a first-tier complaint to provide their final written response.
For comparison, City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority imposes the same timescale on financial services providers. This is nothing out of the ordinary. All that law firms are now being told is that they will have to tell complainants about the eight-week (or shorter) timeframe for resolution at the point they receive the complaint (and give interim progress reports).
More interesting is the context. The inability of some (by no means most) law firms to deal with first-tier complaints has been a recurrent source of frustration for regulators and has had a knock-on effect on the SRA and legal ombudsman (LeO). This will only get worse without further remedial action.
Complaints across the first and second tiers continue to rise inexorably. In 2025, law firms reported receiving more than 41,000 complaints at first tier, an 11% rise on 2024 and the highest number since data collection began in 2012.
LeO, which receives most second-tier complaints, is inundated. The complaints-handler received over 14,000 new complaints in the year to 31 March 2026, according to its newly published annual report. This was 37% more than in 2025 and almost double the number it fielded in 2020/21. LeO accepted 8,400 for investigation in 2025/26, a 17% rise. A revised fee model forms part of the ombudsman’s response. Something has got to give.
It is unclear to what extent artificial intelligence has added to the sum of consumer unhappiness, as disgruntled clients deploy technology to articulate their grievances. What is clear is that the SRA and LeO have an urgent vested interest in complaints being dealt with before they escalate.
This is unexceptionable, too. Over 40,000 first-tier complaints a year sounds a lot, but it is only 4.5 per firm on average. Solicitors ought to be up to dealing with them expeditiously.
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