Complaints we deal with

We can usually look at complaints about CMCs that provide their services from England, Scotland and Wales or to customers in these countries. This includes CMCs that:

• are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• were covered by the Legal Ombudsman at the time of the event the complaint is about

The types of complaint we deal with

The FCA allows CMCs to conduct regulated activities in the following areas:

• criminal injury
• employment
• financial products and services
• housing disrepair
• industrial injury benefit (‘specified benefit’)
• personal injury

We deal with complaints about the service CMCs provide customers in these areas. For example, a customer can complain that you:

• didn’t clearly explain:
  • what fees you would charge them before they entered into a contract with you
  • any changes to the fees during the course of a contract with them
• didn’t keep them informed about the progress of their claim
• caused unnecessary delays to the progress of their claim
• provided inappropriate or incorrect claims advice
• failed to follow their instructions
• consistently didn’t reply when they contacted you
• passed their claim onto another CMC without telling them
• repeatedly contacted them without their consent

We also cover complaints about how CMCs find customers with potential claims, including the use of third-party “lead generators”. 

The rules you need to follow

The Claims Management Conduct of Business (CMCOB) sourcebook – and wider FCA Handbook – sets out the standards of conduct for all CMCs regulated by the FCA.

If a customer complains to us about how you handled their claim, we’ll look at whether you’ve met these standards of conduct.

Find out more about how we handle complaints.

Complaints about events before 1 April 2019

We also handle cases where a customer’s complaint:

• is about events that occurred before 1 April 2019
• or was being handled by the Legal Ombudsman before 1 April 2019 and hasn’t been resolved yet

For complaints about events that occurred before 1 April 2019, we'll take account of the rules that the Legal Ombudsman would have had to follow.

If you want to find out more about how we handle these cases, contact our business advice desk.