Complaints Procedure

Satisfying your requirements and expectations requires not only a professional approach on our part, but also that we should be kept aware of any concerns that you have about our work or about the progress of your matter. We therefore hope that you will raise any such concerns promptly and frankly, and indeed tell us of any suggestions to improve our services. To that end we have internal systems of quality control, including periodic reviews of our service.

Any complaint you may have in relation to our services, which may include a complaint about an invoice, should be raised in the first instance with the Partner responsible for your matter. He or she may seek the assistance of the Firm’s Complaints Partner or others in trying to resolve the matter with you.  Alternatively, if either at the outset, or if you and the Partner cannot resolve your complaint, you wish to make a complaint under our Complaints procedure or if your complaint relates to that Partner please write to the Firm’s Complaints Partner, who has been appointed to try to resolve disagreements between the Firm and its clients. He will acknowledge your complaint in writing, explain to you the procedure that he will follow to investigate the matter and will conduct a full review. That may involve delegating responsibility for the investigation to another partner or member of the Firm’s in-house counsel team.

If you remain dissatisfied after receiving our final response to your complaint (including a complaint relating to an invoice) you can contact the Legal Ombudsman as follows:

• Post: Legal Ombudsman PO BOX 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH; or
• Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk; or
• Telephone: 0300 555 0333 or if calling from overseas +44 121 245 3050.

If you wish to refer a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman it should be done within six months of our final response to your complaint, and in any event it must be brought within:

• one year of the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
• one year from the date on which you realised that there was cause for complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman will not normally consider complaints brought outside these time limits, although it can exercise discretion to extend these time periods where it decides it is fair and reasonable to do so.

The Legal Ombudsman has restricted the categories of clients who are eligible to complain to it. Broadly speaking, a complainant must be an individual (including trustees, personal representatives and beneficiaries of estates), a small business or a charity or club with an annual net income of less than £1 million. For further guidance please refer to the Legal Ombudsman Scheme Rules.

If you wish to make a complaint relating to a bill, you must do so within one month of receiving the bill, failing which we will be under no obligation to investigate or to attempt to resolve the complaint. You may also have the right to apply to the court for assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974, or Part 48 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1999 normally within twelve months of delivery of the bill. The Legal Ombudsman may decline to consider your complaint if you have applied to the court for assessment of the bill.

No charge will be made for the time spent in investigating and responding to a complaint.

Information about reporting an individual or firm to the SRA is available on the SRA website. If you have any concerns about our behaviour or professional conduct you can raise these with the SRA. Please note that the SRA does not deal with complaints about poor service.

The Firm’s Complaints Partner can be contacted at: complaints@crsblaw.com.