Legal Services Bill [HL]

I support that. I have no objection to an ombudsman scheme at all, so long as it does not deal with large sums of money or put one party or another at considerable disadvantage. The purpose of the ombudsman scheme is to right wrongs that have been committed by lawyers, and if they are serious wrongs then they should be dealt with seriously. If it is a totally one-sided forum, as the ombudsman scheme is, and if the ombudsman’s determination is—as I have already said—on the basis of what he thinks fair and reasonable, and only the complainant can accept it, then it must be kept small and not allowed to extend beyond its proper bounds. I am not against an ombudsman scheme, providing it is within limited bounds.