We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all of our clients. When something goes wrong, we need our clients to tell us about it. This will help improve our standards. Whenever possible, please raise any initial client care problems with the person acting on your case, to give them the opportunity to resolve matters with you. Often, matters can be quickly resolved in this way.
If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service that you have received, or about a bill, please contact the firm by post at: Suite 4 City West Business Park, St John’s Road, Meadowfield, Durham, DH7 8ER, or by email to your fee earner.
1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five days of receiving it; enclosing a copy of our complaints procedure.
2. We will investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our Client Care Partner, Marie Riley, who will review your matter and speak with the member of staff who acted for you.
3. We will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgment letter.
4. We will write to you within 5 days of the meeting to confirm the outcome of discussions and any solutions agreed with you.
5. If you do not wish to attend a meeting, you will be sent a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolution, within 21 days of your acknowledgment letter.
6. At this stage, if you remain dissatisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another partner within the firm to review the decision.
7. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position regarding your complaint and explaining our reasons.
8. If you are still not satisfied with our handling of your complaint, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted as follows:
Address:
PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WC1 9WJ
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website www.legalombudsman.org.uk
9. Normally, you will need to raise a complaint with the Legal Ombudsman no later than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or one year from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint. Further, you should raise your complaint within 6 months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.
We would hope that it does not become necessary for you to escalate a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and that we can resolve matters between ourselves. However, if this is not the case, we would be happy to provide you with the necessary information to make such a complaint.
10. If we have to change any of the above timescales, we will let you know and the reason for the change.
11. The complaints procedure includes complaints arising in respect of our bill. There may also be a right to object to the bill by applying to the Court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. If all, or part, of a bill remains unpaid, the firm may be entitled to charge interest.
12. You also have the right to report us to the Solicitor Regulatory Authority if you believe that we have breached any of the SRA Principles, such as:
The SRA will only consider complaints about breach of the core principles; it does not have the power to award compensation for poor service, or to reduce or refund your legal fees, only the Legal Ombudsman is able to make such determination.
13. How to report us to the SRA?
When reporting, please:
14. To submit your report, please send by post to:
Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Cube
199 Wharfside Street Birmingham
B1 1RN
Or by email to report@sra.org.uk
For further information, please visit: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/
Riley Langdon Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (No: 69394)