The Complaints Ledger

Published August 2026. A Blind Justice UK investigation reveals that the SRA has maintained a complaints record for every law firm in England and Wales since 2012, yet it has never made this information accessible to the public. In 2018, the SRA redirected consumers to the Legal Ombudsman's published decisions, a record that removes every decision after twelve months. Out of the 5,698 firms previously listed in that record, an astonishing 5,382 are currently absent from anything a consumer can search today. Additionally, every firm in the sample that has closed, been revoked, or gone through intervention has no complaints information available on its register page at all. The report calls on the SRA to either publish a contextualized firm-level complaints indicator or to ensure a permanent Ombudsman record. It further suggests that the SRA should publish the assessment criteria leading to the acceptance of the twelve-month rule for consumers who wish to submit complaints.