Our Complaints Procedure

Our intention is to provide a high-quality legal service to all our clients.  When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

Should you feel at any time you are not receiving the quality of service you anticipated then please ask the solicitor or other member of staff dealing with your work to explain the situation to you.  If he or she is not able to satisfy your concern then would you speak to the Partner who has overall supervision of the solicitor or member of staff involved.  The details of the partner you should contact will have been given to you at the outset of your instructions in the firm’s client care letter and Terms of Business. If you have a serious complaint which even then has not been dealt with, or if your complaint is about work done for you by a partner, please write to Mr M Proctor at Aldridge Brownlee Solicitors, 277 Lymington Road, Christchurch, BH23 5EB.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

(1)  We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint.  If we need further clarification of your complaint we may ask in that letter for the additional details we require.  We will let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint and will confirm what will happen next.  You can expect to receive our letter within 7 days of us receiving your complaint.

(2)  We will record your complaint in our central register.

(3)  If we have asked you for any further information we will acknowledge your letter giving us that information.  You can expect to receive our acknowledgement within 7 days of our receiving your letter.

(4)  We will investigate your complaint.  This may involve detailed examination of your file and discussions with the solicitor or person dealing with the work about which you have complained.  

(5)  We will write to you to let you know the outcome of our investigation of your complaint and any proposals we may have for resolving it.  Alternatively we may write to invite you to meet with us to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.  In either event we will write to you within 14 working days of receiving your complaint or any further information we have requested.

(6)  Within 7 working days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.

(7)  At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can write to us again.  We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways.

a) The partner in charge of the department concerned will review his or her own decision within 7 days.

b) We will arrange for another partner in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it. They will do this within 14 days.

c) The Compliance Officer for Legal Practice will review your complaint within 14 days.

d) We will ask our local Law Society or another firm of solicitors to review your complaint within 14 days. We will let you know how long this process will take.

e) We will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know how long this process will take. 

We will let you know the result of the review within 10 days of the end of the review.  At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.  We will also give you the name and address of the Legal Ombudsman. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why in writing.

Complaints to the SRA and Legal Ombudsman

If you are unhappy with your solicitor or the firm, you have the right to complain to the SRA or the Legal Ombudsman

A complainant to the Legal Ombudsman must be one of the following:

a) An individual;

b) A micro-enterprise as defined in European Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003
(broadly, an enterprise with fewer than 10 staff and a turnover or balance sheet value not
exceeding €2 million);

c) A charity with an annual income less than £1 million;

d) A club, association or society with an annual income less than £1 million;

e) A trustee of a trust with a net asset value less than £1 million; or a personal representative or the residuary beneficiaries of an estate where a person with a complaint died before referring it to the Legal Ombudsman.

Legal Ombudsman Contact Details:

Address: PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

Telephone: 0300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Please note the time limits for bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:

• one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or 

• one year from the date when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complaint.

Complaints must be raised with the Ombudsman within 6 months of our final reply to a complaint. 
What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour?

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour.  This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

To contact the SRA at Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN, Tel : 0370 606 2555