Published July and August 2026. Two Blind Justice UK investigations into the Legal Ombudsman's public record.
Twelve of the bodies that decide complaints and discipline across British public life were audited as part of our justice reform research, examining whether they publish their decisions, in what form, and for how long. The Financial Ombudsman keeps every decision since 2013; a solicitor struck off stays on the record for sixty years; the Legal Ombudsman publishes data rows with no reasoning and removes them after twelve months, the shortest window and the least information of any scheme audited, under a limit that no law or rule requires.
The second report, built from Legal Ombudsman documents disclosed under FOI, finds that 8,680 complaints were dismissed or discontinued under rule 5.7 in four years, close to half of all pre-investigation closures, and that the Ombudsman does not record how many more ended as withdrawals after its standard letter inviting the complainant to accept the investigator's reasoning.
On 25 August 2026, the Legal Ombudsman disclosed every document under FOI00867 to Blind Justice UK. This includes a complete reproduction of the legal ombudsman documents, complete with a contents sheet, the request and correspondence, the response, the closure table, template 2-08, and three internal guidance notes, totaling forty pages relevant for justice reform research.
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