Complaints Handling Policy
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need clients to tell us about it. It is important that you are happy with the service that we have provided and that we resolve any issues quickly for you.
All Solicitors must attempt to resolve concerns that may arise with their services and charges, including the standard of client and case care, as well as their bills. It is important to us that any problem, concern or complaint raised by a client is resolved without delay.
We aim to deal promptly, fairly and effectively with any complaint that a client may have about any aspect of our service.
The details of the person or case worker conducting your case will be confirmed in the letter that we send you setting out the terms upon which we act on your behalf. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) requires that a supervisor or principal is allocated to each case. Unless you have been notified otherwise, Andrew Joannides, our Senior Partner, is the designated principal.
Any queries or concerns about our work, our charges or our bill should initially be raised with the case worker, or if you would prefer not to speak to the case worker, please contact the supervisor or principal. In the event that matters cannot be resolved in this way and you wish to make a formal complaint, please contact the Client Care and Complaints Partner, Andrew Joannides, by letter or email at First Floor, 11-19 Park Road, London N8 8TE. The letter or email should contain as much detail regarding the complaint as possible and include copies of any relevant documents. This may in turn be delegated to another member(s) of the practice to resolve. We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints, and this is set out below.
What will happen next?
- We will send you a letter or email acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or clarify any aspects of the complaint if necessary. This acknowledgement will be sent to you within five working days of receiving your complaint.
- Mr Joannides (or another partner such as Rupert Chichester or another solicitor at his request) will then start to investigate your complaint. Should your complaint relate to a matter being handled by Andrew Joannides, then another Partner will consider your complaint in accordance with this procedure. Entirely at our discretion, you may be invited to attend a meeting to discuss your complaint with the partner and hopefully to try and resolve matters. If we decide to do this, we will notify you within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
- Within 10 working days of any meeting taking place, we will write to you to confirm the outcome of the meeting and to set out any solutions that may have been agreed with you.
- If you do not want to attend a meeting, then we will send you our written response to the complaint within 21 days of being informed by you that you do not want to attend a meeting.
- If a meeting takes place and we are unable to resolve the complaint, then we will send you a written response to your complaint within 21 days of the meeting.
- If a meeting is not proposed by us, then Mr Joannides or the other partner/solicitor concerned will send you a written response to your complaint within 28 days of the letter of acknowledgement referred to in paragraph 2 above.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another partner within the firm to review the decision.
- We will write to you within 28 days of receiving your request for a review confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
- If we have to change any of the above timescales, we will let you know and explain why.
Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO)
If you are still not satisfied with our handling of your case or the handling of your complaint, you may have a right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman which has formal powers to resolve complaints about lawyers and provides a free and impartial service. The Legal Ombudsman will accept complaints from individual clients, small businesses, charities, clubs, societies, associations and trusts. Complainants must normally try to resolve their complaint via the firm’s internal complaints handling process before they can refer it to the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman allows the lawyer eight weeks to deal with your complaint and therefore your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman should not normally be made until this eight-week period has elapsed. However, we would hope that this does not become necessary and that we can resolve matters between ourselves.
Contact details for the Legal Ombudsman if required are as follows:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough SL 1 0EH
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk.
Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint and within the following timescales:
- Within one year from the date of occurrence of the act or omission about which you are complaining, or
- Within one year from the date you should have reasonably have known that there were grounds of complaint.
The Legal Ombudsman will have discretion to extend the timescale beyond one year where it considers it would be fair and reasonable to do so, however this will not be guaranteed and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Alternative complaints bodies (such as ProMediate and Small Claims Mediation) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm consent to use such a scheme. In the event that you wish to use an alternative complaint body you should advise us and we will let you know if we agree.
The website for ProMediate is https://www.promediate.co.uk
Complaints to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The Solicitors Regulation Authority, our regulatory body, can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for concerns that you may have including dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.
We are bound by various rules of professional conduct which can be viewed at www.sra.org.uk. Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority at https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/
Contact details for Solicitors Regulation Authority:
The Cube
199 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN
Telephone: 0370 606 2555
E mail: contactcentre@sra.org.uk
Website: www.sra.org.uk
Complaints about Bills or Invoices
The complaints procedure above also applies to complaints concerning our bill(s) or invoice(s). There may also be a right to object to paying the bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. The Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about a bill if you have applied to the court for an assessment of that bill.
Our contact details:
Boulter & Co. LLP
First Floor, 11-19 Park Road
London
N8 8TE
Tel: 020 8340 0222
Email: n8office@boulterandco.com
Website: www.boulterandco.com
Boulter & Co. LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under registered number OC427184. The registered office is: First Floor, 11-19 Park Road, London N8 8TE. Boulter & Co. LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority number 660185. A list of the members of the LLP is open to inspection at the registered office. We use the word “Partner” to refer to a member of the LLP, or an employee or consultant who is a lawyer with equivalent standing and qualifications.
Boulter & Co. LLP carries professional indemnity insurance for all transactions and cases up to a maximum value of £5,000,000.00 (five million pounds) per transaction or case. The current insurer is Probitas Syndicate 1492 policy number P24A264542P and their agent is Howden Insurance Brokers Limited.
We do not accept service of documents by fax and by email.
VAT Registration No: 7107414
