A focus on early resolution has helped the legal ombudsman clear thousands more complaints in the past year, the organisation announced yesterday. 

The annual report for 2022/23 shows that the number of complaints resolved jumped by 44% to 9,487. This was largely down to 5,380 complaints being ended through early resolution, up from 1,190 the previous year. 

The ombudsman admitted it had fallen short of its target to resolve 10,000 cases during the year but said there had been a ‘step change in performance’.

Despite the number of complaints about lawyers increasing by 6% to 7,824 during the year, the backlog of cases waiting to be investigated fell by 27% to 4,282 by the end of March this year. In March alone, the service resolved more than 1,000 complaints, making it the most productive year in its history.

Average waiting times for case resolution has reduced by 15% to 185 days, with the biggest change coming in high-complexity complaints where waiting times came down by 20% to 227 days.

Elizabeth Davies, chair of the Office for Legal Complaints which oversees the work of the ombudsman, said there had been ‘genuine headway’ in turning around the fortunes of the organisation, which had struggled post-lockdown with staff retention and an ever-growing caseload.

She said: ‘Over the course of the year, new approaches to early resolution (piloted toward the end of 2021/22) transformed outcomes for people relying on LeO. Testifying to this are the substantially reduced waiting times for customers whose complaints LeO has helped to resolve. This transformation has come from greater efficiency and proportionality, where LeO has aimed to resolve cases at the earliest possible stage given their individual circumstances.’

Elizabeth Davies

Davies: 'Genuine headway' in turning around the fortunes of the organisation

Davies stressed that resolving cases earlier had not come at the expense of quality.

The ombudsman's office spent almost the entirety of its £15.3m annual budget, after it had increased by £741,000 from the year before.

The budget is increasing again in 2023/24 to £16.8m – a rise of 10% - despite estimates that fewer cases will be resolved. The average cost per case resolved is likely to rise from £1,618 to more than £2,000, as inflation and increased salaries take effect.

The ombudsman recruited 61 extra people during 2022/23 but says that an inability to attract and retain staff has remained an issue. Staff turnover was 20.8% during the year, having fallen marginally on the year before, and the annual report noted that if the expected number of investigators had been in place, LeO would have come within 1% of its business plan target for resolving complaints.

The annual salary for the highest-paid individual in the OLC increased 9% to between £120,000 and £125,000, although they received no bonus payments. Average staff salaries rose by 3% and their bonus went up by 17%.

 

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