5. Ask for a review

If you disagree with the Law Society of Ontario's (LSO's) decision on your complaint, you may be able to ask for a review.

The LSO's decision notice will tell you if you can ask for a review or not. If you're allowed to ask for a review, you make your request to the Office of the Complaints Resolution Commissioner.

The Office of the Complaints Resolution Commissioner is separate from the LSO.

Apply for a review

You can ask the Office of the Complaints Review Commissioner to review the LSO's decision through your LSO Connects account.

If you do not have an account or have trouble asking for a review through it, call the Office of the Complaints Resolution Commissioner at 1-866-880-9480.

You must ask for a review within 60 days of getting the LSO's decision.

After you ask for a review, the Office of the Complaints Resolution Commissioner will ask if you want a review meeting with the Commissioner. It can take several months for the meeting to take place.

The meeting is held by telephone or videoconference and usually lasts one hour. You can go to the meeting alone, or with a friend, family member, or lawyer.

You do not have to agree to this meeting. You can ask the Commissioner to review the documents in your LSO complaint file without a meeting.

If the Commissioner thinks the LSO's decision was reasonable, they do nothing and close your file. If they think the decision was not reasonable, they send your complaint back to the LSO and ask them to do something more.

The Commissioner cannot:

• decide if a lawyer or paralegal behaved unprofessionally
• discipline or punish the lawyer or paralegal
• give you money or something else to make up for money you lost
• refund fees or other costs you paid
• do a new investigation

The Commissioner's decision is final. You cannot appeal again if you do not agree with what they decide.

For more information, visit the Complaints Resolution Commissioner page.