The new UK Legal Ombudsman opened for business today, which aims to help people resolve complaints about lawyers. Much as you might expect one of the first complaints to arrive this morning was against the firm Gallant Macmillan Solicitors, which has been in the news several times recently after trying to obtain details of suspected "illegal" p2p copyright file sharers from broadband ISPs BT Retail and its sibling PlusNet UK (here and here).

Related law firms use these details to send demands for money - settlement payments (i.e. "speculative invoicing") - to those they suspect of wrongdoing, which is despite the evidence being notoriously unreliable. Those who refuse to pay up are often threatened with legal action, which almost never materialises.

The complaint against Gallant Macmillan Solicitors was lodged by Marcus Williamson, an IT consultant with 25 years of history in the computer industry.


The Legal Ombudsman claims to have formal powers to resolve complaints about lawyers. It is a free service and promises to look at legal complaints in a fair and independent way, without taking sides.


We suspect that the complaint about Gallant Macmillan Solicitors won't be the last and wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to see a few about ACS:Law winging their way over. First come, first served, as the saying goes.