Legal Service Providers
Complaints provide an opportunity for solicitors and barristers to engage with their clients in order to improve services; they are an opportunity to retain customer loyalty and where handled effectively can assist in re-gaining trust.
Many firms incorporate Resolve Legal within their internal complaints handling procedures. Having worked closely with the Legal Ombudsman and the Solicitors Regulation Authority for sixteen years, we are able to ensure that complaints are handled effectively thereby minimising the risk of them escalating to the regulators whereby they incur a case fee and are published.
Resolve Legal can assist with ad-hoc complaints or can be employed on a retainer basis, the benefits of which include practical advice on complaints handling, assessing a reasonable remedy but more importantly we provide trend analysis of complaints, and suggest mechanisms for firms to implement to prevent recurrences. Firms that outsource complaints to Resolve Legal find a general reduction in the number of complaints received year on year, despite an industry wide increase in complaints.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our role is to investigate the complaint and provide you with an impartial and independent view. We will take the same approach that the Legal Ombudsman would. If you are unhappy with our response, the matter will most likely escalate to the Legal Ombudsman, and as we will look at the same criteria they will probably reach the same conclusions as us. Our experience from working with the Law Society puts us in a good position to provide you with our expert opinion on what constitutes poor service.
As the Complaints Handling Partner at your firm, you are still responsible for dealing with the complaint. By taking independent advice from Resolve Legal, you will demonstrate that you are serious about your complaints management and that this is an area you are willing to invest in, to ensure that you have a good process in place, and improved quality of service. Furthermore, in the Ombudsman’s guidance to effective complaints handling, they recommend that the complaint should be reviewed by someone who was not involved in the matter.
The Solicitors’ Code of Conduct allows you to refer your file to outsource services provided that you are satisfied that the provider of such services is able to ensure the confidentiality of any information concerning your clients. To this end, we will provide an undertaking that both your and your clients’ confidential information will not be shared. You may also choose to obtain the express consent of your client as this will instil confidence in your complaints handling process and the client will be more likely to accept any proposals you put forward to resolve the complaint.
The guidance issued by the Legal Ombudsman suggests that complaints should be resolved within 8 weeks. We can assure you that we will adhere to strict timescales as we have a case management diary in place, and aim to resolve complaints within 3 weeks where possible, depending on the complexity of the case and the number of complaints raised. We will keep you updated of our progress and provide regular timescales for you.
Once we have assessed the complaint, we will be in a position to advise you whether your insurers need to be involved. For example, in the case of a possible claim in negligence or where the claim is likely to result in compensation above your excess.
In any event, we would advise you to notify your insurers that a complaint has been received. Advising them that you have referred the matter to an independent third party will demonstrate that you have an effective complaints handling process in place, which may result in lower insurance premiums in the future.
Your client can choose to refer their complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and / or pursue a claim in negligence, but in any event they will always have to utilise your internal complaints procedure in the first instance.
Whilst we cannot provide legal advice to you on whether or not you have been negligent, we can assist you in reaching a resolution at this early stage. If something you have done or omitted to do looks like negligence, it is also very likely to be poor service and so, can be conciliated internally. We can therefore help you achieve a resolution which will eliminate the possibility of the involvement of the Legal Ombudsman and the threat of a legal claim.
