How to complain about a solicitor

Service complaints and conduct complaints

The system splits complaints in two, and sending the right one to the wrong body costs weeks.

Service complaints are about how the work was done. Delay. Calls not returned. A bill much larger than the estimate. Work that was done badly or not at all. Costs information that never arrived. These go to the Legal Ombudsman.

Conduct complaints are about behaviour that breaks the rules. Taking or losing client money, dishonesty, discrimination, acting when there was a conflict of interest, misleading a court. These go to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in England and Wales.

One episode often produces both. A firm that sat on your file for a year has given poor service; a firm that sat on your file and then invented a court date it never had has also broken the rules. You can pursue both at once, and they do not wait for each other.

Step one: complain to the firm in writing

Every firm regulated in England and Wales has to publish its complaints procedure and tell clients how and when they can complain to the Legal Ombudsman. That procedure is the required first step, and the Ombudsman will not look at a complaint that has not been through it.

Put it in writing, and keep it factual. A complaint that gets somewhere contains:

• What you instructed the firm to do, with the date and the matter reference.
• What went wrong, as a list of dated events rather than an account of how it felt.
• What it cost you, in money, in time, or in an opportunity that closed.
• What you want, stated plainly. A refund of a specific sum, the work redone, an apology, or a bill reduced by a stated amount.
• A request for the firm’s final response, using that phrase, because the clock that follows runs from it.

Send it to the firm’s complaints partner or client relations manager if it names one, and copy the solicitor handling your matter.

Step two: the Legal Ombudsman deadlines

The firm is entitled to eight weeks to investigate and reply. If it replies sooner and says it has nothing more to add, that is the final response and the clock starts then. If eight weeks pass with no final response, you can go to the Ombudsman without one.

Two deadlines then run at the same time, and you have to meet both:

Deadline	The rule
Six months	From the date of the firm’s final response
One year	From the problem happening, or from when you found out about it

The one-year rule is the one that catches people. It applies to complaints referred from 1 April 2023. Before that date the limits were six years from the problem and three years from realising, so guidance written before 2023, which is most of what is online, gives a deadline that no longer exists. If the problem is older than a year and you only discovered it recently, say when you discovered it and why, because that is the date the rule turns on.

The Ombudsman’s early resolution team reviews cases first, and states that this stage can take up to five weeks before a case is looked at for that route. Cases that cannot be settled that way go to an investigator.

What the Legal Ombudsman can order

It can require the firm to apologise, to redo or correct the work, to refund or reduce its fees, and to pay compensation for what went wrong.

It cannot give you legal advice, recommend a different firm, or require a firm to take you on as a client. It cannot help with a complaint about someone else’s solicitor, and it cannot stop a firm pursuing you for outstanding costs while your complaint is queued or being investigated. It only covers providers that are regulated, which is another reason the register check comes before you instruct anyone rather than after.

When to report a solicitor to the SRA

Report conduct to the Solicitors Regulation Authority when the issue is behaviour rather than service quality: money missing from client account, a solicitor acting for both sides in a conflict, discrimination, or a firm that has closed and left files stranded.

The SRA does not get you compensation. It regulates, so the outcome is action against the firm or the individual, not a refund to you. If you want both, complain to the firm and then the Ombudsman for the money, and report the conduct to the SRA in parallel.

Complaining in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland. Every complaint goes to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission first, whatever kind it is. Under section 2 of the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007 the Commission receives the complaint and determines whether it is a conduct complaint, a services complaint, or separate complaints in more than one category. Conduct goes on to the Law Society of Scotland; the Commission keeps service complaints. There is no Legal Ombudsman route, which is why the firms on the Glasgow and Edinburgh lists carry no SRA number and no Ombudsman reference in their terms.

Northern Ireland. The Law Society of Northern Ireland takes both kinds: client complaints about the adequacy of the professional service, and professional conduct complaints about a solicitor or firm on the Roll of Solicitors for Northern Ireland. As in England, the firm’s own procedure comes first.

Complaining about a firm that has closed

A firm that has shut down still leaves a route. The regulator that authorised it holds the files or knows who does, and the Ombudsman deals with complaints about closed providers as long as the provider was regulated when the work was done. The deadlines still apply, so a closed firm is a reason to move faster rather than to give up.