How to complain

Introduction

1. We are committed to providing outstanding client service.  When a problem arises or something goes wrong, we need you to let us know.  This gives us the opportunity to address the issue and to try to satisfy your concerns.  It also helps us to improve our standards.

2. If you have any concerns about our work for you, please initially speak to the person dealing with that work: they will try to help.

3. You can also use this complaints procedure if you have a complaint about a bill.  In addition, you have the right to object to a bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 (see paragraphs 17 to 21 below for more information about this).

4. We will ensure that any complaint is dealt with promptly, fairly and free of charge.

Our complaints procedure

5. If we cannot resolve your concern informally, you may complain to Andrew Meehan, the firm’s Managing Director. You can do this by phone, letter, email or in person, but it helps if you are able to summarise your concerns in writing if possible.

6. Within 3 working days we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and tell you who is dealing with it.  We will also supply a copy of this procedure to you.  We might also need to ask you for further clarification about your complaint.

7. It might be possible to offer a solution at this stage and we will write to you to ask whether the solution is acceptable.

8. We will then either:

a) contact you to try to arrange a meeting with you to discuss your complaint and put forward a solution.  We will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgment letter.  Within 3 days of the meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions that have been agreed; or

b) send a detailed written reply to your complaint, including our suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgment letter.

9. If we do not hear from you within 21 days of sending you our response, we will assume that you accept our response and close your complaint.

10. If we must change any of the above timescales, we will let you know and explain the reasons for the change.

11. If we are unable to settle your complaint within 8 weeks of receiving your complaint, you have a right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

12. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must normally be made within six months of you receiving our final written response about your complaint. From 1 April 2023, the Legal Ombudsman must receive details of any complaint that you wish to raise within 1 year from the date of the act/omission being complained about or 1 year from when you should have realised that there was a cause for complaint.

13. Only copies of documents should be sent to the Legal Ombudsman’s office to avoid any documentation being lost or destroyed.

14. The Legal Ombudsman may decline to deal with complaints from certain types of clients.

15. The Legal Ombudsman’s contact details are:

Address:   Legal Ombudsman

PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

Telephone: 0300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Website: legalombudsman.org.uk

16. Alternative complaints bodies (such as ProMediate (see www.promediate.co.uk)) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and we wish to use such a scheme. We do not agree to use ProMediate.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority:

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

Your rights to object to a bill

17. You have the right to object to a bill and to apply for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 and Part 48 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998. In the event of you seeking to apply for assessment of costs it is possible that you might yourself be ordered to pay costs if it was found upon assessment that our bill of costs has been reasonable.

18. An application for assessment of a bill must be made within 1 month of delivery of the bill. If the bill has been paid, any application for assessment after a month but before the end of 12 months will require the court to find that there are “special circumstances” for an assessment to be ordered.

19. After 12 months have elapsed since the date of the bill, the court does not have jurisdiction to order any assessment of a bill that has been paid under s.70(4) of the Solicitors Act 1974.

20. If you have any queries about a bill, please contact your solicitor straight away so that we can try to resolve any queries.

21. If we cannot resolve a complaint about a bill under this procedure, you have the right to take a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, as above. The Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about this bill if you have applied to the court for assessment of a bill.