Complaints
Complaints Handling Procedure
Occasionally problems or misunderstandings arise and we want to resolve them speedily and amicably.
If you have a complaint about our service or bill at any time, please contact the person with day-to-day responsibility for your matter. If matters are not resolved satisfactorily within what you consider a reasonable time, please follow our Complaints Procedure.
If you are still not satisfied following the above internal complaints procedure, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman. They will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first before accepting your complaint for investigation.
The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within one year from when you should have known about the complaint. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you. The Legal Ombudsman will only extend these time limits if they determine it to be fair and reasonable to do so.
You can contact the Legal Ombudsman as follows:
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Telephone number: 0300 555 033, between 9am and 5pm
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Address: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
For complaints that relate specifically to an alleged breach of the SRA Standards and Regulations including the SRA Accounts Rules, you should refer the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This could be for things like general misconduct, losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. The SRA will not investigate complaints about services provided by the firm; they will refer such matters to the Legal Ombudsman.
You can contact the SRA as follows:
Website: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems
Telephone number: 0370 606 2555, between 8am and 5pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and between 10am and 5pm on Wednesday
You may also have the right to object to the firm’s bill by applying to Court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.
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