Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a court report and court costs incurred during legal proceedings. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. The law says we cannot investigate matters which have been considered in court.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Ms B, complains that an inaccurate Section 7 court report produced by the Council led her to fear she would lose care of her child, and caused her to incur unnecessary legal expenses.
2. She further complains that the Council has failed to reimburse her legal costs, despite agreeing to do so.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
5. The Courts have said that we cannot investigate a complaint about any action by a council, concerning a matter which is itself out of our jurisdiction. (R (on the application of M) v Commissioner for Local Administration [2006] EHWCC 2847 (Admin))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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Final decision

8. We cannot investigate Ms B’s complaint because we cannot consider what happened in court. This applies to both the content of the Section 7 report and Ms B’s legal expenses. As these issues fall outside our jurisdiction by law, we cannot consider the Council’s response to them.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman