. The institution of a financial ombudsman significantly affects the procedure for protecting the rights of consumers of financial services. The problem is that the protection of consumer rights in the courts is complicated by the factual double mandatory pre-trial procedure for resolving a dispute, in which, before going to court, the consumer is obliged to contact a financial organizationand a financial ombudsman. The purpose of this article is to formulate a theoretical approach to the balance between consumer access to justice and the burden on the judicial system. Research objectives: characteristics of the consumer of financial services; assessment of the pre-trial procedure for protecting the rights of consumers of financial services; search for the optimal ratio of pre-trial and judicial procedures for protecting the rights of consumers of financial services. When writing this article, general scientific methods (system, functional, group of logical methods) and special legal methods (formal legal, legal modeling method) were applied. The article criticizes the existing procedure for protecting the rights of consumers of financial services for the imbalance between consumer access to justice and the burden on the judicial system. The author proposes the introduction of a mixed jurisdiction of disputes involving consumers, in the framework of which it is assumed that after contacting a financial organization, the consumer will have the choice of a jurisdictional body- the consumer will be able to appeal to both the financial ombudsman and the court. At the same time, the development of the institution of a financial ombudsman by improving the efficiency, efficiency and other characteristics of dispute resolution will increase its attractiveness for consumers, stimulating them to resolve disputes out of court.
Stefan Wrbka. European Consumer Access to Justice Revisited, Cambridge University Press, 2015, 400 págs.
