Groups representing and regulating the lawyers who must fork out a potential 9.6% rise in the legal ombudsman budget have expressed doubts about the increase.

The Law Society and Council for Licensed Conveyancers both went public this week with reservations about the size of the proposed LeO budget and questioned whether it demonstrated value for money.

The complaints handler says it is on course to meet performance commitments it made last year. So far in 2022/23, the LeO has resolved 55% more cases than during the same period in 2021/22, following a 40% annual increase in 2021/22. By the end of March 2023, it forecasts it will meet its aim of halving its queue of unopened cases.

The ombudsman has said that its planned budget increase to £16.8m in 2023/24 is driven by inflation and takes account of an 8% proposed pay increase to staff. The rise must be agreed by the Legal Services Board.

The Law Society pointed out that the LeO has already received a substantial budget increase over the past two years, and a further rise of almost 10% would affect solicitors as they would ultimately be expected to fund it.

Society president Lubna Shuja said concerns remain about LeO staff attrition levels and sickness absence, even if the service has made some strides in reducing the backlog.

She added: ‘We appreciate the challenging economic conditions under which LeO operates, including a looming recession, a cost-of-living crisis and the challenge of recruiting and retaining skilled staff. However, these stresses are not unique to LeO. Our members are also operating in the same challenging environment.

‘The proposed 8% staff pay rise is particularly concerning when sections of the legal profession have seen no increase in their fees for many years. Criminal legal aid solicitors have not had a pay rise for over 25 years and fees have in fact been cut.’

The CLC said it ‘reluctantly’ accepted the increased budget as this is necessary to ensure the backlog is reduced quickly and complaints are more efficiently and effectively handled. But it warned that many of the positive indicators of the past year were due to the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of cases that were easier to resolve.

It had ‘yet to be assured’ of the ombudsman’s control of costs and pointed out that the average cost of an investigate complaint is still too high at £3,400.

CLC chief executive Sheila Kumar said: ‘There is no doubt that the legal ombudsman is moving, albeit slowly, in the right direction after a long period of drift and underperformance. We do not underestimate the challenge but the users of legal services who ultimately fund LeO cannot write a blank cheque for this recovery.

‘LeO has improved its engagement with the frontline regulators and in that spirit, we hope we can work together to deliver a complaints regime which is fair, efficient and cost effective.’

 

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