Complaints Handling Policy

Our Complaints Policy:

We are committed to providing high quality legal services to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

The aim of our formal complaints process is to resolve the problem to the satisfaction of the person making the complaint.

Our complaints contacts are Shona Nelson or Caroline Batchelor, who can be contacted via email on shona@jgqc.co.uk or caz@jgqc.co.uk . If you have additional needs which we should take into account due to language or disability, please do let us know.

We aim to deal with complaints according to the following timetable:

1/ We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 14 working days of receiving it

2/ We will invite you to fully particularise your complaint in writing, detailing each issue you have, using numbered paragraphs so that we may respond appropriately and ensure that each area of your complaint may be dealt with. This will normally involve passing your complaint to the Principal Solicitor, Marcus Hall, who will review your complaint matter. If the complaint relates to Mr Hall, then it can also be reviewed by our Peter Hardy and Caroline Batchelor. Your file may also be passed to another member of staff for review.

3/ We will seek to do this within 8 weeks of receiving your detailed letter of complaint and provide you with a written response within that time frame. If matters are particularly complex and/or there is a reason we are unable to comply with this time frame, we will let you know and provide a reason together with any new time frames in writing.

4/ After our written reply referred to above, we will invite you to discuss matters with us either by telephone or in a meeting with a view to helping resolve your complaint. If we do not hear from you within 14 days of our detailed reply to you, confirming you wish to discuss matters or have a meeting, we will assume matters have been successfully resolved.

5/ Alternatively, if you are not prepared to attend or discuss matters with us, but, remain unsatisfied we would ask you to confirm this to us in writing. We will in those circumstances, within 7 working days of receiving confirmation that you remain unhappy, have a further review of your matter and contact you again within a further 7 working days.

6/ If you remain unsatisfied, or do not agree to the outcome proposed, you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman. Complaints to The Legal Ombudsman must be made within 6 months of our final response to your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints up to 6 years from the date a problem occurred or within 3 years from when you found out about the problem and if you are referring your complaint to us within 6 months of our final response. The address for The Legal Ombudsman: P.O Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

Telephone: 0300 555 0333 or email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk 

https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/how-to-complain/ 

8/ Your complaint may also be raised with The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

If you are unhappy with your solicitor or their firm, you have the right to complain. They must tell you how you can complain to them and publish their full complaints procedure.

They must also tell you how you can complain to us and the Legal Ombudsman.

If you have already complained to the solicitor or firm that you have a problem with, and they have not resolved the complaint to your satisfaction within 8 weeks of your complaint, you can then take your case to the Legal Ombudsman. You must usually have complained to your solicitor or firm, or they will not accept your complaint.

When you should report a solicitor to the SRA

The SRA deal with cases where firms or those they regulate have breached the SRA Principles. Most of the time, complaints about solicitors are about poor service, and therefore should be sent to the Legal Ombudsman. If the Legal Ombudsman thinks your case involves a breach of our principles, they will refer your case to us. Likewise, if you report a solicitor to us for poor service, we will refer you to the Legal Ombudsman. We do not have the power to award compensation for poor service, or to reduce or refund your legal fees.

However, you should report the matter directly to us if you think a firm or anyone regulated by us has breached an SRA Principle.

You can also report a firm or someone regulated by us for non-payment of professional fees (such as agent or expert fees) if

• You have a County Court judgment in respect of the fee, and
• The judgment relates to the practice in connection with providing a legal service.

There are some issues we do not investigate. However, we always consider allegations of dishonesty or discrimination.

If we have closed a firm and you believe that the firm owes you money, you may be able to make an application to the Compensation Fund.

The SRA has stopped authorising solicitors who wish to act as an Insolvency Practitioner.

If your complaint is in connection with the solicitor’s appointment under the Insolvency Act 1986 please contact the Recognised Professional Body that is now authorising the individual. If the solicitor has taken an appointment and is not authorised by a Recognised Professional Body, then he or she may be committing a criminal offence.

If your complaint is in relation to the legal services provided by a solicitor Insolvency Practitioner, please refer back to the guidance on this page.

How to report a solicitor or firm to the SRA

When reporting, please

• Set out your concerns clearly,
• Identify individuals you consider responsible,
• Attach any evidence you have in support.

For guidance on the complaints process, call our contact centre. Note that we cannot provide advice about your issue, however we can point you in the right direction.

What we will do

We acknowledge all initial reports of information. Our acknowledgement will:

• Thank you for providing the information, and
• Confirm how we handle your information.

Sometimes we may decide to contact you again if

• We believe that you have, or have access to, further information which we need to take the right action, and/or
• We think you may be required to act as a witness or to provide a witness statement—more information about this is available in our guidance to witnesses.

Our service standards

As far as we can be, we are open and transparent.

If you are unhappy with your dealings with us, you can complain to us.

Our role and powers

Our aim is to work with individuals and firms we regulate to ensure they comply with SRA Principles set by us.

Where there is a failure to comply with the Principles, we take into account the risk posed to the public and consumers to help us decide how best to ensure they are protected. Where the risk posed is serious, we can take formal enforcement action, such as limiting or restricting the way they work. In very serious cases, we can close a firm or ensure an individual is unable to practice in the future. Find out more about how we regulate.

We may publish our regulatory decisions.

We have extensive powers; however, we do not have the power to resolve complaints about poor service. Neither can we require a law firm to compensate you.