The Solicitors Regulation Authority has opened a fresh consultation on how firms handle client complaints, proposing that solicitors give clients a resolution timeline the moment a complaint is raised and provide regular updates as it progresses.
Launched on 3 July 2026 and running until 1 September, the consultation builds directly on proposals the SRA put out in 2025, which it confirmed it is proceeding with unchanged.
The new measures respond to figures the SRA has published alongside the consultation. Firms received more than 41,000 first-tier complaints in 2025, the highest total since records began in 2012 and an 11 per cent rise on 2024, while the proportion resolved at first-tier slipped from 82 per cent to 80 per cent over the same period.
The Legal Ombudsman has reported that complaints handling was poor in 46 per cent of the second-tier cases it investigated in the first three quarters of 2025-26, citing inconsistent processes and defensive attitudes from providers as recurring problems.
That evidence sits against a Legal Ombudsman under its own strain. LeO is forecasting 17,675 new complaints in 2026-27, a 174 per cent increase since 2019-20, and on 10 June launched a separate consultation proposing revised case fees, including additional charges for providers who fail to issue a final first-tier response, designed to push firms toward earlier resolution.
The SRA’s proposals were developed in discussion with its oversight body, the Legal Services Board, over what is needed to satisfy the LSB’s Section 112 Statutory Requirements for approved regulators, and any final rules will need LSB sign-off before taking effect.
Aileen Armstrong, the SRA’s Executive Director for Strategy and Policy, said most clients receive the standard of service they should expect, but stressed that where problems arise, firms need transparent processes and clients need clear information about how to complain.
Compliance teams face an immediate procedural task. The SRA is proposing to write the two new requirements into paragraph 8.3.1 of its Code of Conduct for Solicitors and section 7.1(c) of its Code of Conduct for Firms, meaning firms will need to revisit complaint-acknowledgement letters, case-management workflows and staff training well before any rule takes effect.
The Law Society contributed to the SRA’s earlier thematic review alongside LeO. With LeO also reshaping its own fee structure around slow first-tier handling, firms now face two regulators moving on complaints handling at once.