The numbers, from the Ombudsman #
The Legal Ombudsman publishes annual complaints data, and the figures below are from its 2025/26 publication, covering 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.
| Cause of complaint | Share of complaint types |
|---|---|
| Poor communication | 24 per cent |
| Delay or failure to progress | 22 per cent |
| Failure to advise | 19 per cent |
| Costs issues | 9 per cent |
| Failure to follow instructions | 8 per cent |
Communication and delay are the two the Ombudsman itself singles out.
remained the most common issues raised by consumers in 2025/26, together accounting for 46 per cent of complaint types
Volumes rose sharply at the same time.
14,259
New complaints
Legal Ombudsman, 2025/26, up 37 per cent on 10,447
8,412
Accepted
Legal Ombudsman, 2025/26, of which 8,199 resolved
72%
Of assessed complaints showed poor service
Legal Ombudsman, 2025/26, counted as 1,667 complaints
By area of law, residential conveyancing was 36 per cent of complaints at 3,039, a 41 per cent increase, with wills and probate at 14 per cent and 1,147, and personal injury at 14 per cent and 1,140.
Read it as an operations report #
The interesting thing about that ranking is what is not at the top. Nobody is complaining in large numbers about the law being wrong. The top two categories describe a client who does not know what is happening, and a matter that is not moving.
That is a workload pattern more than a competence pattern, and it has a recognisable shape.
-
A file goes into a waiting state
Pending a third party, a search, a lender, another firm. Nobody is doing anything wrong.
-
Nobody decides when to tell the client
Because telling the client is not a task on anybody’s list.
-
Six weeks later the client rings, annoyed
-
The fee earner reconstructs the file
Before they can answer.
The page on keeping clients updated goes into how that reconstruction consumes the day.
Complaint handling is itself a regulated process #
The obligation is not just to avoid complaints. The SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors asks for four things.
- Either “establish and maintain, or participate in, a procedure for handling complaints”
- Give clients written information at engagement about their right to complain and about the Legal Ombudsman
- Ensure complaints are “dealt with promptly, fairly, and free of charge”
- Where a complaint is not resolved to the client’s satisfaction within eight weeks, tell them in writing about the Ombudsman and about alternative dispute resolution
The Ombudsman also reported that 25 per cent of consumers told it they did not receive a final response from their provider, which it linked to providers appearing not to follow their regulatory obligations on complaint handling.
What runs on rules here, and what does not #
Runs on rules
- Knowing which matters have had no client contact for a set period. It is a date comparison.
- Knowing which matters are waiting on the same third party
- Knowing a complaint has been open for a given number of weeks
- Knowing whether the engagement information actually went out, if it is recorded
Needs a fee earner
- Deciding what to say to an unhappy client
- Deciding whether a complaint has merit
- Deciding how to put something right
Judgement in every case, and whether a complaint has merit is also a regulated responsibility.
The pattern that shows up in the data is that the rules half is what fails.
Where this page stops #
It will not tell you that automating client updates discharges your obligations under the Code of Conduct, because it does not. Your duties on communication, complaint handling and supervision stay with the firm, your COLP is answerable for compliance, and an automated prompt is evidence of a system rather than proof that the system is adequate. That assessment is for the firm to make.
What the data supports is narrower and more useful. The largest categories of consumer complaint in legal services are about knowing and timing, and knowing and timing are the two things a process is good at.
If you want to see what it costs your firm to establish where every matter stands, the cost of admin time calculator is a rough start and the free audit is the proper count. If conveyancing is most of your file list, the conveyancing page is the one to read next.