Providing you with the highest quality services is at the heart of our business, and we appreciate the privilege of sitting alongside you as a trusted advisor. Your opinion of us matters. This document explains the procedure we will follow in order to handle any client complaints we receive in an efficient, professional and business like manner.
Who?
Polly Douglas - Partner, COLP & General Counsel (Legal Practice) - has ultimate responsibility for the handling of your complaint.
How?
- In the first instance, we recommend talking through your concerns with the solicitor or Matter Partner handling your matter in an attempt to resolve the issue.
- If the issue cannot be resolved and you wish to make a formal complaint, we need you to provide full details of the issue(s) you have raised to Polly Douglas, in writing (polly.douglas@mishcon.com). If we require further information, we will let you know.
- We will acknowledge any written communication of your complaint within two working days. We will let you know when we will be in a position to provide a substantive response. We will conclude our investigation within eight weeks of your complaint being made. In certain exceptional cases we may need more time, if so, we will let you know.
- If your complaint relates to the costs we have charged then you may also have the right to ask for a detailed assessment (as set out on the reverse of our invoice(s)) pursuant to sections 70-72 of the Solicitor's Act I974.
- Our terms of business will continue to apply to this complaint process. Please note in particular paragraphs 6, I5 and I6 of our Terms of Business.
What next?
If you do not agree with our conclusion about your complaint, and you are a consumer (or qualifying small business), you may refer your complaint to The Legal Ombudsman:
Tel: 0300 555 0333 and 0I2I 245 3050
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Address: PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
To make a complaint online to the Legal Ombudsman, please visit their website here and complete their online complaint form.
Please note that there are strict time limits for making a complaint to The Legal Ombudsman, although it generally expects consumers to exhaust a law firm's complaint process before referring a complaint to it. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of our investigation then you have six months from our final determination to raise the matter with The Legal Ombudsman. In addition 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.
Alternative complaint bodies (such as ProMediate (UK) Limited) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.
While the Legal Ombudsman concerns itself with issues of poor service or costs related issues, the SRA is available should you consider either an individual solicitor or the firm may have breached the SRA Principles. If you wish to report any matter directly to the SRA, the relevant page of the SRA website is here.