Ombudsman News Issue 91 - Financial Ombudsman Service

ombudsman focus:myths and truths about theombudsman servicemythThe ombudsman ignores the law by using‘fairness’ to decide complaints.truthIt is the law itself, laid down by parliament,that requires the ombudsman to decide caseson the basis of ‘fairness’ – while complyingwith the Human Rights Act.The principle of ‘fairness’ lies at the heartof modern consumer-protection legislationapplied in the courts – including the UnfairContract Terms Act, the Unfair Terms inConsumer Contracts Regulations and the‘unfair relationships’ test in the ConsumerCredit Act 2006.Most of the complaints we handle turn ondisputes about what actually happened– or on the application of general legalprinciples. In most cases, our approach isbased on what the courts would be likely todo in similar circumstances. But in some areas,the standards that the industry has voluntarilyimposed on itself (through its codes ofpractice) exceed the law’s requirement.mythThe ombudsman’s approach lackstransparency.truthEvery year we issue literally hundreds ofthousands of decisions, views, opinions andadjudications – sent directly to the individualbusinesses and consumers whose complaintswe settle. So our approach in each case isopen and transparent to the parties involved– but not to anyone else.Some argue this is ‘justice behind closeddoors’ – while others say that settlingcomplaints out of the glare of publicityis what makes private dispute resolution soeffective. After thirty years of not publishingombudsman decisions for all to see,we are keen for a debate on this subject.Should we make every decision publiclyavailable? And where does ‘privacy ’fit into the transparency debate?Meanwhile, we continue to set out ourprocedures and general approach to resolvingdifferent types of complaints in a wideDecember 2010/January 2011 – page 20