Absolutely horrific
I have sent the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman pre-action letters in the past, and received responses from its solicitors, Bevan Brittan LLP. Today, I logged into Ombudsman's online portal, and noted that a complaint that I have escalated to this organisation, which I have not sent a pre-action letter in respect to, currently at the assessment stage, was assigned "Bevan Brittan" as the Case Worker (normally this should be the name of a person employed by the Ombudsman). I understand other people have reported the same issue. In my honest opinion, this demonstrates perfectly that the Ombudsman's solicitors are heavily influencing their decisions, who, needless to say, see the government as their client. It gets even worse, as some of the complaints that I have escalated to this organisation, not decided upon, have completely disappeared from its online portal. In my honest opinion, this organisation is extremely sinister, unethical and cynical. The Ombudsman is considered a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), so anyone seeking to issue a judicial review challenge is obligated to use its services first, whether they would like to or not. In my honest opinion, the government, and the Ombudsman, is opportunistically capitalising on this, whilst cynically seeking to undermine the position of anyone who seeks to bring a judicial review challenge, or any form of legal action, against public bodies such as local authorities.