The High Court has rejected a firm’s attempt to challenge the ombudsman’s decision to award £50,000 compensation to former clients who complained about fees.

Kent-based Knight’s Solicitors was also ordered to reduce the fees payable by £66,000 after the Legal Ombudsman upheld a complaint from the clients, a couple involved in a neighbour dispute, that they were not updated with how costs were escalating.

Matthew Knight, the sole practitioner owner of Knight’s, sought permission in Knight (t/a Knight’s Solicitors), R (on the application of) v Legal Ombudsman for a judicial review of the ombudsman’s decision, asking that it be quashed altogether or at least reconsidered.

But in a judgment from November that was published this week, Andrew Burns KC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, said none of Knight’s grounds amounted to an arguable claim with a realistic possibility of success and in reality were simply reasons why he disagreed with the final decision.

The clients, Glen and Marie Tocher, had complained in July 2022 after they had discontinued their neighbour dispute when they saw the full costs of going to trial. They agreed to pay the other side’s costs but told the ombudsman their own costs estimate had been exceeded without updates or explanation. The complaint was upheld by the Legal Ombudsman in November 2024.

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The judge rejected the solicitor’s argument that it was fundamentally unfair to him to only be given headings about what complaints the clients had raised, rather than the substantive details. It was pointed out in particular that the ombudsman saw a seven-page document that was not disclosed to Knight.

Burns said there did not need to be any court-style standard disclosure, opportunity to reply or a full ‘cards on the table’ approach as in litigation.

Knight had also argued there was no evidence to justify the ombudsman’s finding that that clients would have ‘pulled the plug’ on the dispute and withdrawn earlier if they had known the full extent of the fees being incurred.

The ombudsman had ruled that the solicitor could have reported that the initial estimate had been exceeded, or could have told the clients that the trial alone would cost £70,000, and in those circumstances the clients would have discontinued their claim earlier.

Burns said the decision was well within the ombudsman’s discretion, adding: ‘This is a disagreement with the merits of the decision and, in that respect, is not a legitimate public law challenge because a judicial review is not a forum for rearguing merits.’

The judge also dismissed Knight’s final ground that the ombudsman decision was effectively a finding of professional negligence which amounted to an award of £116,000 – in excess of the £50,000 statutory cap on compensation that can be awarded by the ombudsman.

He ruled that the sums involved were appropriate to be dealt with by the ombudsman and well within the scope of the scheme.