Complaints Procedure
At New Court Solicitors, we strive to provide our clients with a high-quality service.
If at any point you are become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided, you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance, you should contact the fee earner dealing with your case to try and resolve any issues. Thereafter, a senior or partner of the firm will investigate the issues raised in your complaint. This involves a detailed analysis of your case file and interviewing the fee earner against whom the complaint is made and/or the person who had conduct of your matter.
We will provide you with a written outcome following a detailed investigation.
This process may take up to eight weeks from the date of receipt of your complaint, although we shall take steps to act as expeditiously as possible.
If you remain dissatisfied with our determination of your complaint, we allow our clients a 28-day period within which further representations may be made in connection with the complaint. If we do not hear back from you, we shall deem that you are satisfied with the conclusion and that the complaint is closed.
However, if you consider that we have failed to respond to your complaint within eight weeks of you lodging your complaint, or if we have failed to deal with the complaint to your satisfaction within this eight-week period, you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman.
The complaint must be made to the Legal Ombudsman:
- Within six years from the date of act/omission (or three years from when you should reasonably have known about the complaint); and
- Within six months from the date of our final response.
Provided that both these time limits are adhered to and only if the cause for complaint arose on or after 6th October 2010, the Legal Ombudsmen will accept your complaint.
The Legal Ombudsman may be contacted at:
Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton,WV1 9WJ
Tel: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
If the legal ombudsman thinks your case involves a breach of the SRA principles, they will refer your case to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. However, you are also entitled to take this step directly if you are unsatisfied with the outcome of the firm’s investigation or the Legal Ombudsman’s determination. Please note that you will need to complete a report form located on the SRA website and send it via post or email at the following:
Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN or Email:report@sra.org.cuk
