Consumers of Legal Services
Where a client is unhappy with the service provided by their solicitor or barrister, be that due to delay, a failure to reply, or any other perceived failure, they are required to utilise a firm’s internal complaints procedure before they can escalate their complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. Many clients are reluctant to complain to a firm as they have little faith that their complaint will be considered objectively. Where a complaint is outsourced for an independent view, clients can feel assured that their concerns will be listened to empathetically and an adequate solution reached.
If having investigated your complaint, we find that there were failures in the service you received, we can recommend that your solicitor or barrister apologise, pay you compensation, refund fees or take other steps to put the matter right. In all cases we have dealt with, solicitors have accepted our recommendations and have provided the remedy we have asked.
Frequentlty Asked Questions
All members of the public that have a problem with their legal service provider can complain. Other categories of people who can complain are:
(a) A business or enterprise that qualifies as a micro-enterprise;
(b) a charity with an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million;
(c) a club, association or organisation, the affairs of which are managed by its members or a committee or committees of its members, that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million;
(d) a trustee of a trust that had an asset value of less than £1 million;
(e) a personal representative or a beneficiary of an estate of a person who, before he/she died, had not made the complaint themselves.
For (e) the condition is that the services to which the complaint relates were provided by the service provider to a person:
1. Who had subsequently died; AND
2. had not, by his or her death, already referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
Ordinarily, you can raise a complaint if it meets the following criteria:
- The problem or when you found out about it, happened after 5 October 2010; and
- You are raising your complaint within either of the following: Six years of the problem happening orthree years from when you found out about it;
Once you have made a complaint, we have up to eight weeks to respond. If you are not happy with our final response, you must then refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months.
We will listen to what you say and we will review the evidence available before reaching a view. We will then assist in achieving a fair outcome that all parties agree to. Where we find that there have been failures in service, we will recommend that your Solicitor or Barrister do one or more of the following :
- Apologise
- Give back any documents that might be needed
- Put things right, if more work can correct what went wrong
- Refund or reduce the legal fees
- Pay compensation (The Legal Ombudsman can direct a maximum of £50,000 although their average compensation awards are under £250).
In most cases, the Solicitor or Barrister will accept the recommendation that we make.
If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you are then able to escalate it to the Legal Ombudsman for investigation.
Your Solicitor or Barrister may decide to take action against you if you do not pay any outstanding fees. In order to prevent this, you may wish to pay those fees. If your complaint is then upheld, the Solicitor or Barrister may be asked to refund fees or pay compensation.
