Solicitors
Where the admin goes in a small law firm
The work clients complain about is rarely the legal work. It is being told nothing, and being told it late. That is an administrative failure with a professional consequence, which is an unusual and useful combination.
The evidence starts with complaints #
There is an unusually good public record of what goes wrong in legal services, because the Legal Ombudsman publishes it. These are the largest categories in its data for 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.
24%
Poor communication
Legal Ombudsman, 2025/26
22%
Delay or failure to progress
Legal Ombudsman, 2025/26
19%
Failure to advise
Legal Ombudsman, 2025/26
9%
Costs
Legal Ombudsman, 2025/26
The Ombudsman notes that the top two together accounted for 46 per cent of complaint types. Failure to follow instructions was 8 per cent.
Read that list as an operations report rather than a conduct report and it says something specific. The top two categories are not about legal competence. They are about a client not knowing where their matter has got to, and a matter not moving while everybody assumed somebody else was moving it.
What the repeated admin actually looks like #
In a firm of a handful of fee earners it comes down to four recurring shapes.
-
Onboarding
Identity, client due diligence, source of funds, conflict checks, the client care letter and getting it back signed.
-
The update
The call, the email, the “any news” that arrives on a Friday afternoon and has to be answered by opening the file.
-
The file itself
Which has to be in a state that would survive somebody else picking it up.
-
Money
Client account handling, reconciliation, billing and residual balances.
Every one of those has a regulatory dimension. The SRA Code of Conduct for Firms requires "effective governance structures, arrangements, systems and controls", records to demonstrate compliance, and "an effective system for supervising clients' matters". The Code of Conduct for Solicitors requires that you "give clients information in a way they can understand" and that complaints are "dealt with promptly, fairly, and free of charge".
How to tell which parts run on rules #
The test is whether two competent people would do the job identically.
Runs on rules
- Knowing that a matter has had no client contact for six weeks
- Knowing which files are waiting on the same third party
- Knowing that a client care letter has gone out but has not come back
Needs a person
- Knowing whether a client can actually afford to proceed
- Knowing whether an explanation of funds is credible
Judgement, and the regulator expects a named person to own it.
The pages below take these one at a time: what complaints data says about process, onboarding and client due diligence, the update nobody has time for, and the governance questions that come up before a firm lets any tool near a matter.
None of them will tell you what to buy, and none of them will tell you that a given arrangement is compliant, because that is a judgement only the firm can make. For the general argument, the plain answers section is the place to start.
Solicitors
Client onboarding, file opening, forms and the updates clients ring about.
- Why clients complain Communication and delay were 46 per cent of Legal Ombudsman complaint types in 2025/26
- Client onboarding and AML What a new client sets off, from conflict checks to due diligence, and where the time goes
- Chasing ID and source of funds The one chase clients take personally, and why the SRA warns against leaving it late
- The client who rings for an update A status call takes four minutes and costs half an hour, and nobody counts the difference
- Conveyancing admin The most complained about work in legal services, and where the file actually stalls
- Client care letters What the Code of Conduct asks for, and why the SRA says most letters are unreadable
- Time recording and billing Why the one job with nobody waiting at the end of it always slips, and what it costs later
- What an AI policy has to cover The five decisions a firm is really recording, and what the SRA and Law Society have said
Where these numbers come from
- Legal Ombudsman, 2025/26 annual complaints data and insight , read 19 September 2026 . Covers complaints received and resolved between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026
- SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs and RFLs , read 19 September 2026
- SRA Code of Conduct for Firms , read 19 September 2026
Last checked 19 September 2026.
Our workings are on the methodology page .
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