Clients have the right to complain to us and to contact the Legal Ombudsman if they are dissatisfied with our handling of their complaint.
We are committed to providing high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy with any aspect of the service you have received or about your bill, we would ask you to initially discuss this with the fee earner with conduct of your matter or their Supervisor. If you remain dissatisfied please detail your dissatisfaction or complaint in writing to Afsana Akhtar. As Complaints Partner, Afsana Akhtar takes responsibility for complaints and it will be dealt with in accordance with our internal procedure. Please ask for a copy of this procedure if you would like further details. Your complaint will be acknowledged, and we will investigate your concern promptly, fairly and effectively and will try to resolve the problem quickly.
Should you remain dissatisfied with the handling of the complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider it further. Before you make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, it is a requirement that you have raised your complaint with us first and we have 8 weeks to deal with your complaint. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. 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 of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you. Their contact details are:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806,
Wolverhampton,
WV1 9WJ
t: 0300 555 0333 (8.30am-5.30pm)
e: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
w: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
As part of the firm’s complaints handling procedures, we are obliged to inform you that you are entitled to complain about your bill; there may also be right to object to the bill by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part lll of the Solicitors’ Act 1974; and if all or part of the bill remains unpaid the firm may be entitled to charge interest. If you have already applied to the Court for assessment of your bill, please be aware that the Legal Ombudsman cannot then consider it. Pease note that generally only individuals and small businesses fall within the Legal Ombudsman scheme rules. Alternative complaints bodies such as Pro Mediate and Small Claims Mediation exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. However, at this time we consider the Legal Ombudsman the most appropriate complaint body and we do not agree to use schemes operated by the alternative complaints bodies.